Remembering Jesse Owens

by Diana Lambdin Meyer

In the sweltering heat of an Alabama summer, Therman White is on his knees, pulling weeds and watering flowers around the memorial of a neighbor he never met. Winter finds him there pouring over bills and paperwork, making sure everything is in order.

No matter the season, White gladly donates his services to honor that neighbor, Olympic track star Jesse Owens.

“From what I know of Jesse Owens, he gave a lot to the community, and I don’t mind helping people,” White says. “More of us, black and white, should be doing more for our community like Owens did.”

Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, was born the son of a sharecropper in northern Alabama in December 1913. Therman White was born in the same town of Oakville (pop. 250), but about 10 years later, after Owens and his family had moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Most folks simply forgot the Owens family once lived in Oakville.

It wasn’t until White joined the Navy and was stationed in Tokyo in the early 1950s that he saw a museum exhibit about Olympic athletes, his little hometown mentioned in a display about Owens. “I thought, ‘My gosh, he was born right down the road from me, and I had to travel around the world to know about it,’” White recalls.

When White came home in 1976, he found very little had changed in Oakville, an agricultural community with an economy highly dependent on cotton production.

“As a child, I used to sit under a tree in the church yard with nothing to do, so I wanted to give kids a better chance than I had,” White says. “I would drive past the old Owens’ place and think of all Jesse did for kids.”

Owens often said his favorite job was as a playground director in Cleveland. It was his first step in a lifetime of working with underprivileged youth—his greatest satisfaction in life.

Owens organized a number of playground programs and also served as the director of the Chicago Boys’ Club. In 1955, he served as America’s Ambassador of Sports, traveling to many Third World nations promoting sports to schools and youth clubs. And he was presented the Medal of Freedom by President Gerald Ford in 1976.

Owens died in 1980, but his family continues to operate the Jesse Owens Foundation, providing financial assistance and emotional support to young people.

Back in Oakville, White owned and managed various real estate properties, which put him in touch with elected officials. One of them was Roger Dutton, a local state representative. When the 30 acres where Jesse Owens had once picked cotton came up for sale, Dutton used his connections to garner $15,000 in state money. White kicked in his own money to meet the $17,500 sale price.

“Therman really led the way,” says former county agent James Pinion, who worked with White in developing a 10-year plan for the Jesse Owens Memorial Park. “He’s a patient man, and had to be, because we went through a lot of misery making this happen.”

For five years, White crisscrossed Alabama in search of state and federal grants, gifts in kind, and cash donations from various businesses. In the end, he raised $1.5 million for the memorial.

The park, which opened in 1996, includes a replica of the cabin in which Owens was born, a museum that holds his track shoes, among other items, a softball field, and picnic grounds.

“He’s been a one-man show ... never expecting anything in return,” says friend and neighbor Randall Lou Allen. “Therman White and this memorial is the best thing that’s ever happened to Lawrence County.”

About 10,000 visitors a year travel down the rural blacktop road to Oakville in search of the park.

“We close at 3 in the afternoon, but if somebody calls and says they can’t make it until 4, Therman will stay around to keep the doors open for them,” says Jeanette Cole, the part-time secretary and only paid staff member.

Among the tiny trees that Therman White works to keep watered and healthy is one planted by Owens’ widow, Ruth, and their daughter, Marlene, when they visited at the dedication ceremony. Mrs. Owens now lives in Arizona, but has visited the memorial on numerous occasions.

Diana Lambdin Meyer is a writer from Parkville, Mo.

first appeared: 2/3/2002