Everyone has a story.
Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person–someone who is well-known, influential, or successful, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
John Nickelson and Henry Whitehorn are running for the position of Caddo Parish Sheriff. Election day is March 23rd. This week’s “What’s Your Story?” features Mr. Whitehorn. Last week’s “What’s Your Story?” featured Mr. Nickelson.
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
Throughout his 69 years, there are some things Henry Whitehorn has tried to forget.
There are some things he can’t forget.
“I had just picked a sack of cotton and I had taken my cotton up to weigh it and put it on the back of the trailer,” Henry remembered from when he was between 10 and 12 years old. “Some guys came along. The folks were down the field, so they couldn’t really see me. (The guys) put me in the trailer, dug out the cotton, and packed the cotton around me, all the way up to my shoulders. I couldn’t move. When my mother and the rest of the folks got to me, they had to dig me out of the cotton. The guys had left by then–some white guys. That could have been bad if they had covered me up because I would have been smothered.”
When I asked Henry if he thought the incident was a blatant example of racism, he didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Absolutely. Absolutely.”
That was one of several stories Henry told me over lunch at a place of his choosing, Orlandeaux’s Cafe’. Henry had red beans and rice with sausage. I enjoyed a catfish po-boy. We both had water to drink.
“It was a hard life,” Henry said of growing up in the bootheel of southeast Missouri. “But I think that gave me strength. It helped me be the man I am today. I understand hard work, because I’ve been working hard all my life.”
When he was eight years old, Henry — one of nine siblings — began working in the cotton fields. He made $7 a day (that’s right, a day) chopping cotton, and $3 per 100 pounds picking cotton. Henry worked the fields after school, and seven days a week in the broiling summer heat.
“I didn’t know any better. That was our way of life.”
Henry’s mother died when he was 13 years old. A relative in St. Louis took in Henry and three siblings. They lived in a seedy part of town. Henry saw a lot. Again, some things he can’t forget.
“This one day, there was what we considered a local wino. He and another wino, so to speak, got into a fight. I watched him get beat down. I watched the guy pick up a cinder block — a piece of concrete — in an attempt to smash his head in. They finally got him up and got him to the ambulance. It was a bad beating. I don’t know for sure if he died.”
But Henry knew for sure he had to get out of St. Louis.
“If I had stayed, chances are I wouldn’t be who I am today. There was so much where I could have been doing bad things. The folks I knew, the friends I had. I could have easily gone the other way. The temptation was always there.”
Henry’s ticket out of town was the Air Force. For four years, he served as a weapons mechanic. Henry’s tour of duty took him to Texas, Colorado, Turkey, Spain, and Bossier City. Henry’s last stop is where he met a school teacher named Waverlyn. They’ve been married 48 years, and have two children.
Two days after leaving the military, Henry was back in St. Louis, enrolled in the police academy. He was an officer for two years, but Waverlyn wanted to return home. So, they moved back to Shreveport-Bossier, and Henry went to work as a trooper for Louisiana State Police.
“I remember when I joined, one of the duty officers told me I was an illegal alien, that I had no business in Louisiana, and that they were going to make sure I never graduated from the state police academy.”
Almost 29 years later, Henry retired as the state police Superintendent for Public Safety Services.
But Henry was still relatively young, and then Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover was in need of a police chief. More than once, Henry said, “No”. He was biding his time, waiting for the opportunity to become a United State Marshal. But that wasn’t the only reason Henry wasn’t interested in what Mayor Glover had to offer.
“We were having a pretty tough crime crisis, too. I knew I could make a difference, but I didn’t want the headache. I knew I wasn’t going to be here for a four-year term. In fact, I told (Mayor Glover) who I thought would be the best chief at the time, and it wasn’t Henry Whitehorn. That individual (Wayne Smith) is the chief of police now.”
But Glover kept after Henry until the mayor got the answer he wanted. Henry led the city’s police department for just shy of three years. Then, his opportunity arrived. Henry was appointed U.S. Marshal for Louisiana’s Western District.
“It was a dream come true. My mother always said, ‘Don’t ever say what you can’t do.’ That was something I wanted and fought for. I did all the right things. I tried to always do the right thing, the right way, for the right reason.”
After nine-and-a-half years, Henry received a call from someone saying, “We need your help.” “We” was Shreveport, and “help” was in the form of a new Chief Administrative Officer.
Again, Henry’s first answer was “No”.
“I was not interested in coming back for another fight.” Henry was still scared by the pushback he received when becoming police chief. At that time, “The job I really wanted was CAO.”
But timing is everything.
“God has a way of doing things. God knew what I wanted, but it wasn’t time . . . . There was no doubt I could do it, and wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to go back to the city. It was a little time before I said, “Okay.”
Henry was CAO for more than two years, until then-mayor Adrian Perkins lost in a runoff election. Since then, Henry told me he has been mentoring and coaching people free of charge, and enjoying retirement, which includes taking boat rides on Cross Lake, where he lives.
But when the opportunity to run for Caddo Parish Sheriff presented himself, Henry couldn’t say “No.”
“I’ve always wanted to help people . . . . Law enforcement is my calling, and God showed that to me. This is out of obedience to God that I am continuing my service. This is something that I believe is God-driven. People have asked me for a long time to run for sheriff. The time is now for this to happen. It’s all because of what God showed me.”
Assuming Henry needed to get back on the campaign trail, I asked my final question. As always, what is it about his life story that can be helpful to others?
“Our future is determined by the decisions we make . . . . Education. Being committed to doing the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons. Treating people the way you want to be treated. Earning people’s trust and respect.”
Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com