Marion had done it all and he was, to me, the shining example of a great American. After all, how many Americans can say that they flew fighter planes in World War II, fought against the Apache, and shot down bad guys in the old west? Well, if Marion was with us today he could lay claim to all those things and more; why, he even fought against Santa Anna at the Alamo. I
was working the graveyard shift at The Dow Chemical, in Freeport,
Texas, on June 11, 1979, when the shocking news about Marion came
across the radio. I worked alone in a brine-treating facility in
one of Dow’s chlorine gas plants. And it was a good thing that I
was by myself, because the news brought me to tears; not something
I would have wanted the other guys to see. Many
thoughts raced through my mind that night. I wondered how my life
would be without Marion – he was the one who provided me with
some diversion from the problems and strain of my daily routine.
When I had troubles, I could always go to the local picture show,
have some popcorn, and watch Marion fight Indians or out-draw a
bad guy and then my world would seem normal again.
No, I knew my life would never be the same without the Iowa-born
Marion Michael Morrison. And after careful consideration, perhaps
I should use the name that Hollywood placed upon him in the late
1920s. I can just hear him saying, “Pilgrim, you better cut out
that Marion crap and start calling me John Wayne!” John
Wayne, nicknamed “Duke,” was a man of few words, most of the
time, but when he spoke nearly everyone listened. He made over 200
films, best I remember, and only won an Academy Award for one of
them – that being True Grit, which is not one of my
favorites. In my opinion, he should have won awards for The
Searchers, The Quiet Man, The Man Who Shot Liberty
Valence, Red River, The Horse Soldiers, The
Cowboys, and The Shootist.
From the time he was discovered by director John Ford, Wayne
showed his versatile ability to play any role which was offered to
him. Granted, some of his movies were not so hot and most of those
I don’t even remember but all the rest are burned into my brain
– I can tell you the names of the characters in most of the
movies (my favorites), and I catch myself reciting the dialog
along with the actors. As
I write this, I remember even more of my favorite John Wayne
movies such as Rio Grande, In Harms Way, Fort
Apache, and The Flying Tigers. And who can forget Fighting
Seabees, Sands of Iwo Jima, Big Jake, Back to
Bataan, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Comancheros,
Chisum, Cahill U.S. Marshal, McClintock, and The
Alamo. Several
months after the death of John Wayne, his friend Ronald Reagan was
asked to write something about the actor. His tribute tells much
about the man. Reagan recalled the time when Wayne was in Dallas
for the premiere of Chisum. He returned to his hotel room
late one night to find a note tacked to his door. It was from a
woman who said her little daughter lay critically ill in a local
hospital. The woman wrote, “It would mean so much to her if you
could pay her just a brief visit.” At 3 o’clock in the
morning, he took off to the hospital and visited the astonished
child and every other patient who happened to be awake. John
Wayne was always a solid backer of our troops. During the Vietnam
War, he was one of the few from Hollywood who firmly supported our
soldiers. In his tribute to Wayne, Ronald Reagan wrote of an
incident that occurred when Duke and actor Jimmy Stewart were
traveling together to attend an event; along the way, they
encounter a group of demonstrators who were carrying a Vietcong
flag. Jimmy Stewart had just lost a son in Vietnam. It seems that
Duke excused himself and walked into the crowd; when he returned
there was no Vietcong flag. I
wonder sometime what John Wayne what think about the things that
are going on in today’s world. I’ll bet he would have already
made a movie, or two, about our brave kids fighting in Iraq and
Afghanistan. No doubt, he would probably have paid them a visit
and told them how proud he was of the job they are doing. He was
like that you know, a patriot to the core and a great American.
It’s doubtful that John Wayne would have thought much about the
rights of our enemy; he probably would have figured that murderers
give up their rights when they kill innocent people and attack us
on our own soil. The John Wayne that I remember would have most
likely been looking for a rope rather than “due process” –
but then again that’s just my opinion. Duke
had a saying about how he expected others to treat him. He used
that motto in one of the scenes from The Shootist when he
said, “I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be
laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I
require the same from them." Although he never knew me, I feel that if we had ever met, Marion and I would have been good friends – well anyway, that’s the way I like to imagine it.
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