"Old soldiers never die -- they just fade away." ---General Douglas MacArthur
John Norman Gallaspy (1932-2026)
It was a sad Saturday evening in March when I received the call from my good friend Katie Jackson Lee --- her Uncle John Gallaspy had passed away. Ninety-three-years young, he had passed away before I had the chance for one last visit. As I have lamentably learned, time waits for no one. But both our last meeting and his last letter stood firm in my mind. Mr. John was not only inimitable but also influential. Lucky are the folks who crossed his path. John Norman Gallaspy was a great man who, wearing many hats, had a rich, rewarding life.
The title of my series in early 2025 was "Lawyer, Citizen, and Soldier: John Gallaspy," which is how many knew him. But a renowned jurist, community activist, and Korean war hero, Mr. John was all that and more. He referred to himself and signed his correspondence --- keepsakes of mine --- as an old citizen, old soldier, and melon farmer. The title varied with the topic.
But for a gentleman so prominent and an attorney so brilliant, Mr. John routinely downplayed this angle. As for the lawyering, he explained in one of his letters, "The exhortations of the T.V. lawyers have pretty much diluted whatever dignity our other profession had (no wonder the English call us 'solicitors')." It was pretty apparent that he enjoyed being a melon farmer best - after all, the tractor came with the territory.
And it all began in Pelican, Louisiana, "a beautiful, little country town" population 100, as he -- - the son of Francis Norman Gallaspy and Hazel Weeks Gallaspy, and Mary Leigh Marshall Gallaspy --- proudly recollected.
Digressing, it was pure coincidence that on the same Saturday I learned of his leave-taking, I had been in a highfalutin shop on Mobile Bay earlier in the day. It was there I ran into a young woman --- she was buying, I was looking --- who also hailed from Louisiana. In the course of conversation, she made it clear that she wasn't particularly proud of her hometown, rarely admitting to it, in bayou country. But my parents gave strict instructions, "Never forget where you're from." And John Norman Gallaspy never did.
It was his upbringing in tiny Pelican, a farming village in DeSoto Parish, that set him apart and on his life's course from law school to landowning and farming. Humble to the core, Mr. John did it all well, but not to hear him tell it. And I did love to hear him tell it --- both in person and on paper, he spun a story like no other. Mr. John offered the following caveat, "The things I tell you - it will be true, but it's not going to be that dramatic."
Oh, but let me tell you, it was. In describing his military service as a forward observer for the 39th Field Artillery Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment of the Third Infantry Division, in Korea, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor in Combat, and his deep desire to escape from the Republic of South Korea to the glorious hills of Northwest Louisiana, he wrote in his letter to me, "I was like Gov. Edwin Edwards when a reporter visited him while Edwin was in prison, and the reporter asked him if there was anything going on in the outside world he'd like to know about, and Edwards replied, 'Who's got the key?'" Accordingly, when the time came, Mr. John happily made a beeline for home and was up on a John Deere "M. T." in no time.
The melon farmer was what I would call a man of the people. John Gallaspy was humility personified. And he made Washington Parish, which was a great fit --- where he moved with beloved wife Dixie Nell Yates (1934-2016), a native, in the 1960s --- home and also a wonderful place to live. As he told me, Dixie wanted to get on home. And Mr. John "fell in love with her family [the Yates]." The father of three outstanding sons --- Whit, Gardner, and Lee --- Mr. John was a devoted family man for sure. Predeceased by his wife Dixie and other loved ones, he was survived by his beautiful family --- second wife Martha Moak Gallaspy; children Dr. John Whithurst Gallaspy (Stacy), Gardner Weeks Gallaspy (Lori), and Leland Redding Gallaspy (Tonya); grandchildren Caitlyn, Connor, Marianna and Molly Gallaspy (Whit), Will and Emily Gallaspy (Gard), and Caroline and Grant Gallaspy (Lee); and sisters Kathleen Myers and Virginia Garlington. An admission, Stacy and Whit are my dear friends.
And I admired Mr. John greatly, both professionally and personally. A graduate of Louisiana State University (the Ole War Skule as he called it) and LSU Law School, he practiced law for nearly sixty years, retiring in 2016. And he went way back with my dad, in Bogalusa. Mr. John knew my dad well, perfectly describing his tenure at the Bogalusa Community Medical Center, "He ran a tight ship." Digressing, Whit informed that he interviewed my dad at the hospital for an essay on healthcare he wrote for medical school.
Mr. John and Daddy also were in Rotary Club together. I would be remiss if I didn't also mention how active Mr. John was with the American Legion, Magic City, Post 24. That is, in fact, how we reconnected, my recognition of Post 24 herein --- my lucky day.
With regard to Bogalusa, Mr. John --- a former Bogalusa Citizen of the Year --- knew the whole story as evidenced by the fantastic treatise he published in 2014 --- "'The City That Refused To Die' Bogalusa's first hundred years." It contains all the people, places, and stories --- a wonderful chronicle of the community. With Mr. John's blessing, I have relied on and been mesmerized by his material for years. For anyone who hasn't read it, I wholeheartedly urge you --- in my one-year-old grandson's voice --- "Do!" That's Lukas's big word, and it fits perfectly here.
And Mr. John was one of my most faithful fans. This was repeatedly revealed in his beautiful correspondence to me. When his delightful letters arrived, I could hardly wait to immerse myself in them. It was my great fortune to call him friend. This is, in fact, how Mr. John addressed me in each invaluable letter, "dear friend Cecily." The honor was all mine. In one of his missives, he penned, "It's good of you to compliment an old citizen and soldier whose time is running out."
The pleasure was all mine.
