Blog 3228 – 09.03.2024

Wallace Stokes

One of my favorite types of writing is tributes. It is not only a thrill to see the very best in others, but writing about them and sharing their inspiring lives is to me one of the best form of poetry and prose.

Today’s subject is my father-in-law, Wallace Mendel Stokes who never saw a stranger in need on the side of the road, but that he did not stop and try to help. Though he never had a large bank account, he was rich indeed for he always had enough to spare and enough to share.

Like most men, Wallace was a man of strong opinions regarding right and wrong, still he never let his personal opinions get in the way of loving people. One of his favorite jokes was regarding his seven married children of whom all but the two youngest had multiple spouses. He would say something like, “in-laws or out-laws I try to just love them all.” And he did a good job of it too.

Wallace was a farmer with a sixty acre farm not far from Sumter, South Carolina, about midway between Columbia and Florence just off Interstate 20. That is Lee County where Wallace would tell you they have the best water there is. He dug the well himself on the Stokes Farm and I can tell you that Lee County water is hard to beat.

That wonderful water and the sandy soil in that area grows some of the biggest and best tasting watermelons. Five and a half years before Dad passed there was a write-up in the Lee County Observer that I have attached. It was a proud moment for Mr. Stokes as he was proud of his wife and family, his farm, what he grew, and all the friends that he had made in all the years that he had farmed and bought, fixed and resold farm equipment.

He could have perhaps made a lot of money doing other things, but he loved being a farmer and watching things grow. It was the live he chose and loved.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White