LOCATION: Texarkana, Arkansas; Shreveport, Louisiana.
PERIOD: 1919-1979
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Lue Ellen Knox (1900-1979); Johnny “Jack” Stone (1899-1973); Richard Wesley Bryant (1885-1930); Benjamin MacCrae (1896-1969).
Lue Ellen Knox, Texarkana native, met Johnny “Jack” Stone in 1919 at a dance given for the soldiers returning from having served in World War I. She and Johnny had a night of romance and continued their affair for a few weeks. But it ultimately fizzled out, leaving Johnny feeling rejected and disappointed.
Almost a decade later, December of 1928, Lue Ellen started dating Richard Wesley Bryant, fifteen years her senior. Wesley was the oldest son of a wealthy Shreveport family, in the oil and gas business, and he was very wealthy. He had previously been married but his wife had died several years prior to their meeting. Wesley wooed Lue Ellen with expensive gifts, jewelry, furs,, haute couture, and was on the verge of proposing to Lue Ellen when the stock market crashed in October, 1929, leaving Wesley near bankruptcy. Shortly after breaking off their engagement, Wesley lept to his death, unable to face the shame of being broke and consequent loss of social standing.
Again, almost a decade later, spring of 1938, Lue Ellen came into contact with a navy man just back from the sea, retired, Benjamin MacCrae. He was a romantic and charmed her with a single red rose each day. They fell truly in love and their marriage lasted for thirty years before Ben suffered a fatal heart attack in 1969.
Lue Ellen lived on, alone, for another ten years but finally succumbed to her depression, and loneliness, and took her own life, at age 79, holding a photograph of Ben and with a bundle of dried roses by her side having lived a full life and loved three men.
THREE LOVES OF LUE ELLEN KNOX
(F.D. Leone, Jr.)
A bundle of dried roses by her side,
The night Lue Ellen Knox died.
Once, she was a happy bride;
Twice, happiness was stolen from her.
In her life, Lue Ellen loved three men:
Johnny, Wesley, and Ben.
After tonight she won’t love again;
That part of her story is over.
Johnny was just back from The Great War,
When he met Lue at a “coming home” dance.
Lips brush a cheek, fingertips touch an arm;
Summer kisses under rice paper lamps.
Johnny needed someone, he was haunted,
He thought Lue was who he wanted,
But Johnny ended up disappointed;
Their love flared hot then it was over.
Wesley was wealthy and older;
Since his wife died his heart had grown colder.
Lue Ellen made the embers smoulder;
Wesley felt like a new man.
He used his money to impress:
Cartier bracelet, Chanel evening dress.
On one knee he asked Lue Ellen to say yes;
The market crashed; Wesley was ruined.
Ben sent Lulu a rose every day,
Home from the sea he captured her heart.
A small wedding was planned for May;
Honeymoon in the Ozarks.
Ben loved Lulu from the day they met,
For thirty years they shared the same bed.
Then suddenly her Ben was dead;
Their time together seemed cut short.
A bundle of dried roses by her side,
It’s been ten years since Ben died.
She remembered her three loves and cried;
It had all gone by so fast.
With Ben’s photograph in her hand,
Whiskey and pills on the bedstand;
The last few months Lue Ellen planned,
To say goodbye to it all at last.
Ben’s death, the last cruel twist of fate;
Third time around Lue Ellen found true love.
The other two were not mistakes;
Each one perfect, for what it was.
Whiskey spilled as her head collapsed;
A few pills scattered as her hand relaxed.
The final curtain closed on her third act;
Lulu is with Ben forever after.
© 2023 Frank David Leone, Jr./Highway 80 Music (ASCAP). The songs and stories on the Highway 80 Stories website are works of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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