History is a Trip

The greatest and sweetest deal I ever had was being in charge of Clark Gable’s suite at the Georgian Hotel in Atlanta when he was there for the premiere of ‘Gone with the Wind’ in 1939”.

This is a quote by my cousin, St. Lawrence Tucker (1907-1987), from the February 1982 issue of the Decatur (Illinois) Daily Review newspaper. He died when I was a very young child and I’m not sure if I ever met him, but I remember my grandmother and other family referring to him as “Tucker” and thinking how odd it was that he was called by his last name.

I recently went down a rabbit hole about his life and it was one of the most fascinating discoveries I have made as a family historian. He was born in Haywood County, Tennessee (my ancestral homeland) but he and his family left the area in 1920 and moved to Decatur, Illinois because of the job opportunities in the wake of the massive Wabash Railroad Strike. As a teenager, he left Decatur and went to St. Louis, Missouri where he lived with his older brother Samuel and briefly attended high school before he got a job working as a dining car waiter (not with the Pullman Company). He held this job for several decades starting in the 1920s, working for Great Northern, Union Pacific and Southern Railroad. His time as a dining car waiter provided him with the opportunity to meet and provide service to multiple celebrities of that era, such as Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, Bob Hope and Carole Lombard. 

During his time as a dining car waiter, he also worked as a waiter and maitre’d in various hotels, restaurants and country clubs, living in places as far away from home as Erie, Pennsylvania and Atlanta, Georgia. I was able to confirm through records and newspaper articles that he was a resident of Atlanta between 1939 and 1942 and that the Gone With the Wind premiere indeed took place there on December 15, 1939. I was even able to find an article on Newspapers dot com with a photograph of Clark Gable’s room at the Georgian Hotel during the premiere!

By 1947, he was back in Decatur permanently, working as a room service waiter during the day at the Hotel Orlando and as a cocktail service waiter at the St. Nicholas Hotel at night. He rose to become maitre’d of the Hotel Orlando and stayed in that role until the early 70s, when he next became a bailiff in the courtroom of Judge Rodney A. Scott. The Jacksonville Journal Courier newspaper described him as “the kind of guy who could charge eight dollars for the two-dollar steak and get by with it”. They also said “his dress is impeccable and it seems he would be at home in the Perry Mason court scenes”.

He married Mary Louisa Johnson in Decatur in 1953 and I even found mentions of he and Mary in the St. Louis American newspaper in the 1960s, documenting their visits to St. Louis to see his brother, Samuel. Mary preceded Tucker in death, passing away in 1984. Tucker himself eventually became terminally ill with cancer and left Decatur for St. Louis, where my grandmother took care of him in the last months of his life. He died there in 1987.

It's always mind blowing when you learn how your family was involved, directly and indirectly, in major historic events (“Gone With the Wind” was massive!). As a genealogist, we are frequently asked which of our ancestors or relatives would we spend time with if we had the chance. After months of uncovering details about his life, my cousin St. Lawrence Tucker is definitely towards the top of my list.

SOURCES:

Herald and Review. (February 27, 1982). Second Profile on St. Lawrence Tucker. Newspapers.com. Retrieved August 3, 2024, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/herald-and-review-second-profile-on-st/141564868/

Jacksonville Journal Courier. (September 25, 1973). St. Lawrence Tucker Referenced in Decatur Trial. Newspapers.com. Retrieved August 3, 2024, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/jacksonville-journal-courier-st-lawrenc/141551245/ 

The Decatur Daily Review. (January 10, 1978). Profile About St. Lawrence Tucker in Decatur Daily Review. Newspapers.com. Retrieved August 3, 2024, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-decatur-daily-review-profile-about-s/141562058/