A man has a right to change his ways'
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Perhaps Lucky Hedgepeth's final resting place should have two markers:"TOUGH GUY" and "NICE GUY."
Hedgepeth, who recently died at age 82, lived the first part of his life as a hellion. During his day, if bullets, blood or brawls befouled a Peoria bar, police automatically bet on Hedgepeth.
"He did some things that were the talk of the town," says one of his sons, Daniel Marschner. "He got blamed for some things he didn't do, but he was no angel. He was the first to admit it."
But in later years, he mellowed into a family man. And he became a gung-ho advocate for others who needed a helping hand, especially fellow veterans.
"He had to change," his son says.
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Hedgepeth grew up in Clarksville, Miss. In 1940, the 16-year-old lied about his age to join the Army. Inducted in Jackson, Miss., he served in the 82nd and 101st Airborne across the European Theater.
Hedgepeth braved repeated injuries and a German prisoner-of-war camp, earning the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. After the war, Hedgepeth was shipped back to his original base in Jackson. There, he became friendly with a gal named Charlotte, the daughter of his master sergeant.
Upon his discharge, he and Charlotte married. They relocated to her hometown of Ottawa, Ill., where they would have two sons. When the younger, Daniel, was 6 months old, the couple divorced.
Because of a bullet to the head during the Army, Hedgepeth received a disability pension. But he also earned money in other ways, some of them honest.
During his Army days, Hedgepeth became a renowned middleweight, and even sparred with Sugar Ray Robinson. After the service, he turned pro under the name Lucky Wood.
"He was doing pretty good in the early '50s," son Daniel says.
Meanwhile, Hedgepeth was becoming what old-timers would call a police character.
"I think he was just high-strung," his son says. " ... He was tough. He didn't want anyone to boss him around."
Even when Hedgepeth got in trouble, he somehow held sway.
"He was never convicted of anything I know of," his son says.
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In Ottawa in 1946, Hedgepeth was arrested at on a charge of assault with intent to kill.
"That was just a fight I got in," he told a newspaper years later. "The guy didn't die or even was hurt bad."
He was acquitted.
In 1951 in Ottawa, he was arrested for keeping a disorderly house. He had to pay only a small fine.
"I merely owned the property this stuff happened in," he complained.
The next year, Hedgepeth relocated to Peoria, where he would remarry, have two daughters and divorce again.
One night he walked into the Clover Club, and bullets screamed past his head. Police arrested a bar regular who claimed he was protecting himself from Hedgepeth - and his threats over a $200 debt.
<> By 1958, Hedgepeth had trained to become a TV repairman - and he even served as the president and business agent of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1440. But he resigned after he was charged with extortion.Allegedly, he'd called an Iowa man who owned a machine that tested TV tubes. Federal authorities said Hedgepeth demanded $50 from the man to ensure that his machines would remain operating in Peoria.
He was acquitted.
In 1961, Hedgepeth was charged with assault and battery for repeatedly punching the face of WMBD radio announcer John Mason as they passed on the street. Police hinted the attack might have stemmed from a disagreement over a local labor issue.
He was acquitted.
In 1965, he pointed a gun at three men at the Globe Street Tap and ordered them to leave. The men said Hedgepeth refused to serve them because they were black. Hedgepeth said they entered the business drunk and boisterous. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
He was acquitted.
Through the years, other cases followed Hedgepeth, who repeatedly was on the receiving and giving end of threats and attacks.
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As the 1970s neared, Hedgepeth had a change of heart.
At the time, both of his sons joined the Navy during the Vietnam War. Until then, he'd had little contact with them. But the sudden military connection prompted him to write them letters overseas.
Gradually, he grew closer to all of his offspring. He became a doting grandfather, always badgering the little ones about the need to do all of their schoolwork.
Outsiders also noticed a new Hedgepeth. He became active with local veterans groups, and eventually served as president of the Disabled American Veterans and commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
With the latter group, he started bingo games to support a bus service that took indigent veterans to far-flung Veterans Administration hospitals. One year, he prompted the organization to give a hefty check to the YWCA, saving a a cold-weather shelter just before it was to close.
"I don't want to see anyone freeze," Hedgepeth said at the time.
Hedgepeth lived most of his latter years at the Schlarman House retirement home. He stayed healthy until a recent onslaught of pneumonia, influenza and other maladies.
On April 17, he died peacefully. He was buried in his military uniform.
In his latter years, Hedgepeth occasionally would talk to his family about his wild days of youth - but not wistfully.
"He told me he made mistakes when he was younger, and there was nothing he could do about that," says son Daniel Marschner, 55, who lives in Morris.
"He said a man has a right to change his ways," Marschner says. "That sounds right to me."
PHIL LUCIANO is a columnist with the Journal Star. He can be reached at pluciano@pjstar.com, 686-3155 or (800) 225-5757, Ext. 3155.
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