Edited
interview (2008) with Pam DeVaul (PD), niece of Richard Wolverton, by Joe Manning (JM).
JM:
How well did you know him?
PD: I knew him when I was growing up, then kind of lost track of
him when he moved to Columbus. I think I was about 18 or 19 then.
JM: You told me that he
was a little slow. What did you mean by that?
PD: He had a funny way of talking. And whenever
he would come out on the bus to visit, I think he wore just about every piece of clothing he owned, summer or winter. He was
a little different. I sent the photo to his sister, my Aunt Esther, and we were talking about him. She told me that Richard
hadn’t always been slow. I just assumed that he was born that way. But she said that didn’t happen till he was
about nine years old. They just suddenly started to notice it.
JM: How far did he get
in school?
PD:
I don’t know. He couldn’t read and write very well. He lost his mother when he was young. She died of TB in about
1929.
JM:
When did his father die?
PD: In the 1960s. He was always working on the railroad or busy chasing
women. In his later years, he was in a rest home. I don’t think any of the kids had much of a relationship with him.
After their mother died, they had to kind of fend for themselves.
JM: Were you surprised
to see him selling newspapers?
PD: I guess he had to do whatever he could to get by.
JM:
What kinds of jobs did he have when he was in Newark?
PD: He was a dishwasher and a cook and a janitor,
jobs like that. He had an older brother, Andy, who drove a taxi, and he helped him sometimes, like helping passengers load
and unload suitcases, and stuff like that.
JM: Did he live alone and take care of himself?
PD:
Sure. He would rent a room at somebody’s house. At one time, he lived with two of his older brothers.
JM:
Why did he move to Columbus?
PD: I think the job opportunities were better, and his oldest sister,
Esther, lived there. He wanted to be closer to her. By that time, some of his brothers who had looked after him in Newark
had passed away.
JM:
How big was he when he grew up.
PD: He was about 5’ 9’’, and pretty chunky, close
to 200 pounds.
JM:
Did he still have that mop of hair that he had in the photo?
PD: Yes. That’s how
I recognized him right away, his hair and his teeth.
JM: Did he own very much, besides his clothes and
necessities?
PD:
No. He had just his clothes and a few odds and ends that meant something to him.
JM: Did he
have any favorite form of recreation?
PD: I can remember him reading comic books, and
I think he liked baseball.
JM: Did he talk a lot, or was he quiet?
PD:
He was quite a storyteller. He had lots of stories about all kinds of things.
JM: How old was he when
he moved to Columbus?
PD: Maybe about 40. I don’t remember that I ever saw him again
after he moved.
JM:
Why did you call him Uncle Beans?
PD: He just loved beans. You couldn’t feed
him enough beans. If he’d come over to the house, and you asked him what he wanted to eat, he always wanted soup beans,
like navy beans and lima beans and northern beans and butter beans. He’d sop it up with his bread. Other people called
him Beans, too. My mom called him that. We also called him Dickie.
JM: How did you find out
that he died?
PD:
Aunt Esther called my mom and told her. We sent some money to help with the cremation. I remember that he seemed to like everybody.
He was always nice to people and liked to talk to them. I think that he wanted friends, but he was different, so it was hard
to make friends. A lot of people don’t talk to folks like him. There were even people in the family who kind of ignored
him. But I was never embarrassed about him. When I was growing up, I would introduce him to my friends. He was a good, hard-working
man, and deserved to be remembered.
