My brother-in-law Jesse was probably one of the kindest men I have ever known. He must have learned his caring nature at an early age. He had plenty to be bitter about, but he was the opposite. He lost his mother when he was only 16. Before then the family had lost a child of three by drowning,* and later on in Jesse’s life, his younger brother Virgil was killed in WWII. Jesse had to drop out of school at his mother’s death to take care of his baby sister.
But he seemed to be proud that he had done that. He loved his sister, and she thought the world of Jesse. I have given it a lot of thought. Surely both of Jesse’s parents must have been kind themselves. I only met his father two times, but he seemed to have a disposition like Jesse. Maybe his mother did, too.
Jesse had insight and empathy with people even when others did not always know it. I remember that he would talk about how hard my mom worked. He would say that she had too much to do. (She did). And he would say that she needed more help. (She did). I wondered if Jesse ever thought of his own mother and missed her as he watched my mom. I didn’t ask him, but I wondered.
I think it was Jesse himself who told me that he had started to work part time when he was fifteen. In his late teens he began to work on the river. I don’t remember hearing Jesse tell many stories about his work, but I do remember him talking about the ’37 flood. Louisville and all surrounding areas had lived through many floods, but the flood of ’37 is still the worst on record. Jesse helped with the rescues. He and others would man boats to evacuate families in flooded portions of Louisville. Jesse said that they would receive messages all through the night, such as…”send help to a certain address on 4th street , etc.” Jesse would have been 21 at that time.
In the early days of Jesse’s job with Kosmos Towing, it was required that he stay on the boat from 10 days to two weeks at a time, traveling up and down the Ohio/Mississippi rivers with barges from the Kosmos Cement Plant. His official job title was “tugboat engineer” according to his obituary although at times he also was the cook on the boat, I believe. Deanna, Jesse’s niece, told me that most of the Bennett men, like Jesse, had also worked at Kosmosdale. Later after Jesse and Hazel married and for most of the years that Jesse worked for the company, he was no longer on the river but at the Kosmos Cement Plant. Even today if you stand on the bank of the Ohio River at West Point and look upstream a short way, you can see the plant’s high plumes of white smoke lifting up in the air. The white smoke is always there. And if you think of Jesse’s history of asthma and emphysema, you realize how hard that perpetual dust must have been on Jesse’s health for many years.
Jim Bennett, Jesse’s nephew, said that Jesse found an apartment in West Point and lived there for several years before Hazel came along. It was then that Jesse’s life took a wonderful turn. And so did Hazel’s. As I have said before, I think their lives in West Point were their happiest years. Jesse knew and loved West Point, and soon Hazel loved it, too. Hazel has said that Jesse was never as satisfied in Radcliff as he had been in West Point. In West Point, he was a town leader and a church deacon, respected by everyone who knew him. There were many soldiers who came and went through the town, but Hazel and Jesse were part of the stability of that unique, very old, little town. Jesse knew the history and the oldest people as well as the children coming along, and Hazel knew even the transient families because she taught their children in school. And they had their travels during the summers. Life was very good.
Not many months after they married, Hazel and Jesse bought their first home, a two-bedroom, one-bath white house on Main Street. It was a charmer. It had grilled windows, an open front landing trimmed in wrought iron, and a purple clematis over the kitchen door. When I used to visit, I was always happy to see that little house. I felt so safe there. I bet a lot of you remember that feeling, too.
Jesse and Hazel were very proud of each other. Jesse was proud of Hazel’s education. He wanted her to continue her graduate college work. And he was proud of her in other ways as well. He loved it that she worked hard and kept the house spic and span. One time he commented, “Hazel don’t let any grass grow under her feet.” He thought she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. He would often brag on Hazel, especially on the days when she had her hair styled at the beauty salon. When we were at the supper table, Jesse would say, “Doesn’t she look pretty, Flo?” and I would say, “Yes.” But then Hazel would say, “Oh, Jesse,” in mock scolding. Then Jesse would say, “We need to go into Louisville and buy you another pretty suit.” Hazel would say, “I don’t need another suit,” and he would say, “But I want you to have one.” And on and on.
Some of us have often talked about how Hazel and Jesse spoiled each other. Jesse spoiled her in many ways because he would never argue with her, and he would do almost anything she wanted. But Hazel would spoil Jesse by letting him “order” whatever he wanted her to cook for him. And Hazel could cook like a dream.
One meal she cooked I remember in particular. It was the middle of a hot summer, and there was no air conditioning. As always Hazel was determined to prepare a hot meal for Jesse: a main course, two vegetables, a salad, fresh iced tea, and a baked dessert. On the morning of this particular day, Hazel had called a repairman, a plumber, I think. Sure enough, the repairman didn’t come until almost time for Jesse to be home from work that day. Hazel showed the man what she wanted done, then she came back into the kitchen to finish supper. The plumber had already commented on the delicious smells in the air when he had first come in. As it happened, at one point, the man again came through the edge of the kitchen just as Hazel was pulling out of the oven a perfectly baked coconut pie. At the sight of that beautiful pie, the plumber said, “Boy oh boy — there’s a mighty lucky man living at this house!” And I thought, “Jesse already knows he’s a mighty lucky man.”
Note:
* Hazel told us that Jesse’s sibling who drowned was a boy, but Ancestor.com records this child, Amzie Bennett, as a girl.