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Cas Walker (left) vs. J.S. Cooper Fifty Years Ago
Submitted by KnoxVol on Wed, 2006/07/26 - 5:08pm.
It happened at the March, 1956 meeting of the Knoxville city council. Councilman Caswell Orton Walker (left in picture) got into a fistfight with Knoxville councilman J.S. Cooper. This picture appeared page 38 of the March 19, 1956 issue of the Life magazine.
Life magazine says that Cooper threw the first punch. He took a poke at Walker with his left. Cas Walker was fixin' to counter with a right cross but onlookers broke up the frakas before anybody could land a solid blow.
The magazine says the fight was over tax rates and property assessments (i.e. taxes). It's not known for certain but since Walker was known for being a fierce fiscal conservative it's reasonable to assume that he was fighting against a tax increase.
This event fifty years ago is a stark contrast to politics today when elected officials seem to never argue over a tax increase. They're too busy trying to figure out ways to slip over tax increases on innocent citizens so they can funnel cash their cronies and crooked buddies (ref. Mike Ragadale's shady wheel tax increase in 2004)
Submitted by Bbeanster on Wed, 2006/07/26 - 5:28pm.
Notice how everyone in the picture is laughing?
That's because it was a hoax.
How do I know?
Cas told me so.
I had the Cas Walker "beat" when I worked at the KJ (Knoxville's late, once-great other daily newspaper, for you newbies). It started with me interviewing him when he was in the nursing home in Blount County, and we became fast friends over the last decade of his life. He was a helluva story-teller, and, near as I can tell, mostly told me the truth -- mostly. He told me that the "fistfight," a framed picture of which hung in the Journal editor's office, was "a put-up job," and that he and Cooper had cooked it up ahead of time. He wore many hats -- salesman, coon hunter, obstructionist, political boss -- but more than anything else, he was an unparalleled master at commanding the attention of the public. And it was hard to spell Cas wrong. I treasure my Cas Walker stories almost as I do my brother's.
Somebody remind me some day, if you are interested, to tell you about the time that brother John conned Cas. It was classic. Godzilla v King Kong.
Submitted by bill young (not verified) on Wed, 2006/07/26 - 5:49pm.
if beanster's got any stories on this i'd love for u to share 'em...but i do know that this is when knoxville changed from a city manager system to the present mayor council system
Submitted by WhitesCreek on Wed, 2006/07/26 - 6:33pm.
Beanster, I thought it was a put on when I saw the pic but I couldn't be sure. I've actually know folks that laughed while they were beating or getting beaten up.
The pose is all....well posed though. Good stuff for political theater.
My sister-in-law was his caregiver/nurse at the nursing home over in Maryville in his final days.
I met him once, when he came to Doyle High to speak to us about marketing back in the early 70s. He was standing out in the hallway, ready to go in and give his talk. He was un-straightening his tie and messing up his hair. He said it was part of his image of being a regular guy.
It is a strange tragectory in life that lead me to orthogonally know you after I spent so much time as a kid in total awe of John's ability to make anyone look like an ass.* I'd pay good money, earned that is, to hear tale of how your brother might have hoodwinked Cas Walker.
* My fave is the one where John gets on to some old lady and she won't have any of it. He ends up praying or something with her. When I was in college we decided to prank call some people. The game was to get someone on the phone and keep them on as long as possible. I called this older woman, a widow, and became the heavyweight champion by keeping her on the phone for something like 2 hours. I felt awful and went over to her house a couple of days later to apologize. She let me in and fixed me a coffee. We sat and talked for a a couple of more hours and I finally got up the nerve to tell her what an awful person I was. She looked at me and said, "Well, I knew you were up to no good, but I hadn't talked to a soul in days. So I'd figure I'd keep you on the phone for as long as I could." Ouch. I ended up mowing her yard and fixing things for her for the rest of the time I was in school. Come to find out, she ran a leper colony for years, had a master's in public health and had been everywhere in the world except the North and South Pole. Nobody's fool and certainly not mine. She died in the late 90s at some age rapidly approaching 100. I never pranked called anyone ever again.
True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler
Submitted by Factchecker on Thu, 2006/07/27 - 7:45am.
That was fascinating. I grew up with some of the Dempster relatives. They too were wonderful people.
+1 to the last three posts (+3?). I used to hear that when my grandfather would bring his kids, one being my mom, to Knoxville while he was on business with the Secret Service, he would drop them off to stay with the Dempsters.
Now, Betty, we're ready to pull up our chairs. If you're saving it for a book or something, that would be worth waiting for too.
Submitted by Bbeanster on Fri, 2006/07/28 - 4:08pm.
Thanks for that story, Metulj-
Much as I love my brother and much as I miss him, sometimes I cringed at the stuff he'd do in pursuit of the perfect prank.
Great story --
Not sure this is SUCH a stark contrast to today. I remember Mike Arms giving John Mills the finger at a County Commission meeting just a couple of years ago.
I keep hearing the ol' Cas jingle in my head: "Thumpin' Good, Thumpin' Good!"
Funny, too, how he was such a fiscal conservative, yet he was also popular with the working class and with minorities. Sorta like a Republican Democrat, or something like that.
That is only part of the picture that is in the Life magazine. The picture spreads across the magazine fold. The part that you're seeing above is on the left hand side of the fold.
I took the picture with my digital camera. The Life magazine is at the Knox Co. library. I cropped the picture just to show Cas and J.S. Cooper. There are two other persons to the right. Neither of them appear to be laughing.
I couldn't tell if it was a hoax.
I would like to upload the whole thing for everybody to see. If somebody will show (or tell) me how I will upload the entire picture. I like to never figured out how to get the first one up there.
Submitted by Les Jones on Wed, 2006/07/26 - 9:14pm.
My favorite quote about Cas was something like "If I ordered a whole truckload of sons-a-bitches and all they sent me was Cas I wouldn't complain."
Hey, Les, why don't we just call each other assholes and get it over with. - Somebody on the old Southknoxbubba.net (if that was you, claim your quote and win net.fame!)
Submitted by Bbeanster on Wed, 2006/07/26 - 10:22pm.
Mine, too. It's in Bruce Wheeler's book, and it's from
Cas's old arch-rival George Dempster, a former mayor and inventor of the Dempster Dumpster. The way I remember it, Dempster said "If I ordered a boxcar load of sons of bitches and they only sent me Cas, I'd pay for the whole order." Dempster was a brilliant, witty man who deserves to be well-remembered, but isn't.
Cas considered him the ring leader of the Silk Stocking Crowd.
Interesting stuff on Dempster from my favorite local historian:
http://www.fountaincitytnhistory.info/People7-Dempster.htm
Submitted by bill young (not verified) on Thu, 2006/07/27 - 10:44am.
knoxville had a city manager form of government until the recall of cas walker & 2 other members of council in dec 1946..the city manager ran the day to day workings of the city & was appointed by council...the mayor was elected by council(the way the chair of the county commission is elected today)..cas was elected mayor by council in jan 1946....cas's gang fired the city manager,who was very popular with the silk stocking crowd....The Good Government Group was formed..backed by the News-Sentinal...& forced a recall vote...recalling cas & 2 other members of council...plus amended the city charter to create our present mayor/council form of government..from 1946-1971 knoxville had 8 mayors(Dance died in office & Duncan was elected to Congress)from 1971 till term limits in 2003 knoxville had 3 mayors...testerman(2 non consecutive terms),tyree(2 terms) & ashe(4 terms)...got info from the book heart of the valley
Submitted by redmondkr on Fri, 2006/07/28 - 4:53pm.
He was un-straightening his tie and messing up his hair.
That reminds me of a story a friend used to tell of seeing Cas deplane at McGhee Tyson one afternoon. He was perfectly groomed in an attractive business suit until he ducked into a nearby lavatory to become the Cas we all knew.
Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things. - Dan Quayle
Submitted by nextarchitect on Sun, 2007/11/11 - 8:32am.
hello.
email was sent back.
my grandfather was a friend of cas. he worked for journal in sales dept.
when i was in middle school i took the photos of cas from his daily ads and made a 'beautiful' mobile. now its buttons. and scissors tie clips.
not sure what the fascination is.
ive heard that dolly was setting up a museum.
love to hear any stories.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2006/10/15 - 12:45am.
Cas lives...see Steve Hall, Stacey Campfield, Tyler Harber, Randall Parker, etc. Good old Knoxville politics. Betty Bean loves them all, though. She's got all the column inches...Go Betty!!
Submitted by G. Russell (not verified) on Sun, 2007/11/11 - 2:19am.
Remember this?
Pick up the morning paper when it hits the street
Cas Walker's prices just can't be beat
Try that Blue Band Coffee you will want some more
Do your grocery shopping at the Cas Walker Store
I was stationed at McGhee Tyson AFB in the
'50's. Cas had great entertainers on his show.
Remember Red and Fred? Honey Wilds? And, of
course.........Dolly.
Submitted by Pam Strickland on Sun, 2007/11/11 - 8:44pm.
My sob g'father loved Cas. Because of that every morning of my life until Cas went off the air the first thing I heard on school mornings was Cas carrying on about something, and my g'father talking back to the TV. My g'father was freuqently cussin' either Cas or whoever Cas was carrying on about.
pgs
Pam Strickland
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut
Submitted by Terry Troll on Wed, 2007/11/14 - 7:57am.
I just found this string. I met Cas in about '62 or '63 in his Broadway store. I had gone in to see about a job. He was in the little office talking to, I guess, the store manager. He started asking me questions and it turned out he had known my Grandfather. We talked for about 15 minutes and I was impressed by what a nice guy he was.
But what I want to know and have forgotten is (1)the story of the missing red lights and (2)who published the Thunderbolt tabloid. Weren't they available in CW stores?
Submitted by Bbeanster on Wed, 2007/11/14 - 1:02pm.
I don't know about the missing red lights.
But I have never heard of Cas having The Thunderbolt in his store. It was a hardcore Klan periodical published by J.B. Stoner out of Stone Mountain Georgia.
The Watchdog was more of a free-flowing rant on whoever Cas was pissed off at at the moment -- most often political rivals and cops. Cas didn't much like cops, and loved to bust them for hanging around his competitors' establishments while on duty.
He also hated dog stealers and women who wore hot pants and then accused his friends of raping them.
Are you asking about the new traffic lights that were sold in a small Georgia town? I remember a story in the Watch Dog about several City of Knoxville employees who had a business selling surplus traffic equipment. One night a city truck left the garage after dark with a load of new traffic lights. Cas Walker had the truck followed to a town in Georgia where they were sold to the local town. After the Watch Dog broke the story, the traffic light were return and no one was charged.
Submitted by Terry Troll on Thu, 2007/11/15 - 1:20pm.
that was the story. All I could remember was traffic lights disappearing. And thanks to B. It must have been the Watchdog I was thinking of. I do remember picking up the Thunderbolt somewhere in Fountain City or Inskip though.
Submitted by Mandi Lynn (not verified) on Sat, 2007/12/01 - 2:04pm.
I am glad I found this site. Cas was my husbands great grandfather. His father always tells us stories of things they did together. We thought it was only us who sat around and talked about Cas!
Submitted by Pam Strickland on Sun, 2007/12/02 - 8:39am.
It is an East Tennessee tradition to talk about Cas. He comes up in conversations all the time. Everybody has a story. I even told Cas stories when I lived in Arkansas, so my guess is that Cas stories are in every state in the country and many foreign lands. He would probably love that.
However, to have him in the family must be interesting. Some wild family stories I bet. All the things the rest of us don't have any idea about.
Pam Strickland
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut
I recall my parents taking me to Cas Walkers on Chapman Highway to look down through the pipe at the guy buried alive in his parking lot. The guy had a light down in the hole with him.
Years later Cas spoke at a Young Businessmans Assoc for business students at the University Center in the Shiloh Room. He talked about burying the guy in his parking lot and said the deal was just for one or two nights, but business spiked so much he left him down another day or two.
Submitted by ErnestUTBass (not verified) on Fri, 2007/12/14 - 4:51pm.
I grew up in Oak Ridge in the 50's and 60's and remember watching the farm hour and his commercials. In 1968 we moved to Cecil County Maryland. My first day of high school in Maryland this kid comes up to me and says "do you know Cas Walker". I almost fell over. Come to find out Cas did a lot of "coon huntin" up in Cecil County, MD.
Submitted by robbie (not verified) on Wed, 2008/03/26 - 3:03pm.
My grandfather worked with Cas I've heard my share of stories his name is Little Robert VanWinkle. He was 42" tall--normal from the waist up but had short legs. My grandfather played music and I've seen clips on TV of him playing behind Dolly when she was a girl.
Looks to me like Cas had the Superior Kung Fu.
Notice how everyone in the picture is laughing?
That's because it was a hoax.
How do I know?
Cas told me so.
I had the Cas Walker "beat" when I worked at the KJ (Knoxville's late, once-great other daily newspaper, for you newbies). It started with me interviewing him when he was in the nursing home in Blount County, and we became fast friends over the last decade of his life. He was a helluva story-teller, and, near as I can tell, mostly told me the truth -- mostly. He told me that the "fistfight," a framed picture of which hung in the Journal editor's office, was "a put-up job," and that he and Cooper had cooked it up ahead of time. He wore many hats -- salesman, coon hunter, obstructionist, political boss -- but more than anything else, he was an unparalleled master at commanding the attention of the public. And it was hard to spell Cas wrong. I treasure my Cas Walker stories almost as I do my brother's.
Somebody remind me some day, if you are interested, to tell you about the time that brother John conned Cas. It was classic. Godzilla v King Kong.
if beanster's got any stories on this i'd love for u to share 'em...but i do know that this is when knoxville changed from a city manager system to the present mayor council system
Beanster, I thought it was a put on when I saw the pic but I couldn't be sure. I've actually know folks that laughed while they were beating or getting beaten up.
The pose is all....well posed though. Good stuff for political theater.
WhitesCreek
My sister-in-law was his caregiver/nurse at the nursing home over in Maryville in his final days.
I met him once, when he came to Doyle High to speak to us about marketing back in the early 70s. He was standing out in the hallway, ready to go in and give his talk. He was un-straightening his tie and messing up his hair. He said it was part of his image of being a regular guy.
Bbeanster,
It is a strange tragectory in life that lead me to orthogonally know you after I spent so much time as a kid in total awe of John's ability to make anyone look like an ass.* I'd pay good money, earned that is, to hear tale of how your brother might have hoodwinked Cas Walker.
* My fave is the one where John gets on to some old lady and she won't have any of it. He ends up praying or something with her. When I was in college we decided to prank call some people. The game was to get someone on the phone and keep them on as long as possible. I called this older woman, a widow, and became the heavyweight champion by keeping her on the phone for something like 2 hours. I felt awful and went over to her house a couple of days later to apologize. She let me in and fixed me a coffee. We sat and talked for a a couple of more hours and I finally got up the nerve to tell her what an awful person I was. She looked at me and said, "Well, I knew you were up to no good, but I hadn't talked to a soul in days. So I'd figure I'd keep you on the phone for as long as I could." Ouch. I ended up mowing her yard and fixing things for her for the rest of the time I was in school. Come to find out, she ran a leper colony for years, had a master's in public health and had been everywhere in the world except the North and South Pole. Nobody's fool and certainly not mine. She died in the late 90s at some age rapidly approaching 100. I never pranked called anyone ever again.
True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler
That was fascinating. I grew up with some of the Dempster relatives. They too were wonderful people.
+1 to the last three posts (+3?). I used to hear that when my grandfather would bring his kids, one being my mom, to Knoxville while he was on business with the Secret Service, he would drop them off to stay with the Dempsters.
Now, Betty, we're ready to pull up our chairs. If you're saving it for a book or something, that would be worth waiting for too.
Thanks for that story, Metulj-
Much as I love my brother and much as I miss him, sometimes I cringed at the stuff he'd do in pursuit of the perfect prank.
Great story --
I remember relatives saying this made the front page of the LA Times.... City Council Metting Hillbilly Style.
Not sure this is SUCH a stark contrast to today. I remember Mike Arms giving John Mills the finger at a County Commission meeting just a couple of years ago.
I keep hearing the ol' Cas jingle in my head: "Thumpin' Good, Thumpin' Good!"
Funny, too, how he was such a fiscal conservative, yet he was also popular with the working class and with minorities. Sorta like a Republican Democrat, or something like that.
That is only part of the picture that is in the Life magazine. The picture spreads across the magazine fold. The part that you're seeing above is on the left hand side of the fold.
I took the picture with my digital camera. The Life magazine is at the Knox Co. library. I cropped the picture just to show Cas and J.S. Cooper. There are two other persons to the right. Neither of them appear to be laughing.
I couldn't tell if it was a hoax.
I would like to upload the whole thing for everybody to see. If somebody will show (or tell) me how I will upload the entire picture. I like to never figured out how to get the first one up there.
My favorite quote about Cas was something like "If I ordered a whole truckload of sons-a-bitches and all they sent me was Cas I wouldn't complain."
Hey, Les, why don't we just call each other assholes and get it over with. - Somebody on the old Southknoxbubba.net (if that was you, claim your quote and win net.fame!)
That was fascinating. I grew up with some of the Dempster relatives. They too were wonderful people.
Cas used to say "Your rights end where mine begin". I'm not sure if he was talking about his fisting duels, though.
He had another political enemy with whom he reportedly got into a fist fight. The other person's name was E.B. Bowles.
Talk local politics at The County Seat
.
knoxville had a city manager form of government until the recall of cas walker & 2 other members of council in dec 1946..the city manager ran the day to day workings of the city & was appointed by council...the mayor was elected by council(the way the chair of the county commission is elected today)..cas was elected mayor by council in jan 1946....cas's gang fired the city manager,who was very popular with the silk stocking crowd....The Good Government Group was formed..backed by the News-Sentinal...& forced a recall vote...recalling cas & 2 other members of council...plus amended the city charter to create our present mayor/council form of government..from 1946-1971 knoxville had 8 mayors(Dance died in office & Duncan was elected to Congress)from 1971 till term limits in 2003 knoxville had 3 mayors...testerman(2 non consecutive terms),tyree(2 terms) & ashe(4 terms)...got info from the book heart of the valley
He was un-straightening his tie and messing up his hair.
That reminds me of a story a friend used to tell of seeing Cas deplane at McGhee Tyson one afternoon. He was perfectly groomed in an attractive business suit until he ducked into a nearby lavatory to become the Cas we all knew.
Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things. - Dan Quayle
Beanster@AOL.com
I'd love to talk to you about this.
Thanks
Betty Bean
hello.
email was sent back.
my grandfather was a friend of cas. he worked for journal in sales dept.
when i was in middle school i took the photos of cas from his daily ads and made a 'beautiful' mobile. now its buttons. and scissors tie clips.
not sure what the fascination is.
ive heard that dolly was setting up a museum.
love to hear any stories.
ben garlington
Cas lives...see Steve Hall, Stacey Campfield, Tyler Harber, Randall Parker, etc. Good old Knoxville politics. Betty Bean loves them all, though. She's got all the column inches...Go Betty!!
Remember this?
Pick up the morning paper when it hits the street
Cas Walker's prices just can't be beat
Try that Blue Band Coffee you will want some more
Do your grocery shopping at the Cas Walker Store
I was stationed at McGhee Tyson AFB in the
'50's. Cas had great entertainers on his show.
Remember Red and Fred? Honey Wilds? And, of
course.........Dolly.
My sob g'father loved Cas. Because of that every morning of my life until Cas went off the air the first thing I heard on school mornings was Cas carrying on about something, and my g'father talking back to the TV. My g'father was freuqently cussin' either Cas or whoever Cas was carrying on about.
pgs
Pam Strickland
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut
You can hear Dolly Parton sing this on her Heartsongs album. The full clip is on Amazon.com.
"If I ordered a truckload of s-o-b's and all they showed up with was Cas, I would sign for it."
I love all these wee tales about this guy. What a colorful character. Come one Beanster--a book please! This is juicy, delicious stuff.
I just found this string. I met Cas in about '62 or '63 in his Broadway store. I had gone in to see about a job. He was in the little office talking to, I guess, the store manager. He started asking me questions and it turned out he had known my Grandfather. We talked for about 15 minutes and I was impressed by what a nice guy he was.
But what I want to know and have forgotten is (1)the story of the missing red lights and (2)who published the Thunderbolt tabloid. Weren't they available in CW stores?
I don't know about the missing red lights.
But I have never heard of Cas having The Thunderbolt in his store. It was a hardcore Klan periodical published by J.B. Stoner out of Stone Mountain Georgia.
The Watchdog was more of a free-flowing rant on whoever Cas was pissed off at at the moment -- most often political rivals and cops. Cas didn't much like cops, and loved to bust them for hanging around his competitors' establishments while on duty.
He also hated dog stealers and women who wore hot pants and then accused his friends of raping them.
Are you asking about the new traffic lights that were sold in a small Georgia town? I remember a story in the Watch Dog about several City of Knoxville employees who had a business selling surplus traffic equipment. One night a city truck left the garage after dark with a load of new traffic lights. Cas Walker had the truck followed to a town in Georgia where they were sold to the local town. After the Watch Dog broke the story, the traffic light were return and no one was charged.
that was the story. All I could remember was traffic lights disappearing. And thanks to B. It must have been the Watchdog I was thinking of. I do remember picking up the Thunderbolt somewhere in Fountain City or Inskip though.
I am glad I found this site. Cas was my husbands great grandfather. His father always tells us stories of things they did together. We thought it was only us who sat around and talked about Cas!
It is an East Tennessee tradition to talk about Cas. He comes up in conversations all the time. Everybody has a story. I even told Cas stories when I lived in Arkansas, so my guess is that Cas stories are in every state in the country and many foreign lands. He would probably love that.
However, to have him in the family must be interesting. Some wild family stories I bet. All the things the rest of us don't have any idea about.
Pam Strickland
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut
I recall my parents taking me to Cas Walkers on Chapman Highway to look down through the pipe at the guy buried alive in his parking lot. The guy had a light down in the hole with him.
Years later Cas spoke at a Young Businessmans Assoc for business students at the University Center in the Shiloh Room. He talked about burying the guy in his parking lot and said the deal was just for one or two nights, but business spiked so much he left him down another day or two.
I remember the same thing. Maybe I saw you there. I think he called himself Digger O'Dell.
Digger O'Dell was the friendly undertaker on the old Life of Riley radio program. No doubt that's where Cas' character got the idea for the name.
Visit us at
Wearybottom Associates
I grew up in Oak Ridge in the 50's and 60's and remember watching the farm hour and his commercials. In 1968 we moved to Cecil County Maryland. My first day of high school in Maryland this kid comes up to me and says "do you know Cas Walker". I almost fell over. Come to find out Cas did a lot of "coon huntin" up in Cecil County, MD.
My grandfather worked with Cas I've heard my share of stories his name is Little Robert VanWinkle. He was 42" tall--normal from the waist up but had short legs. My grandfather played music and I've seen clips on TV of him playing behind Dolly when she was a girl.
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