My family went to see the movie Song Sung Blue last Friday to show our support for our hometown moviemaker Craig Brewer and his excellent movie, but I couldn’t help but think about his father.
Walter Brewer attended Collierville High School in the sixties when I did. He was a grade below me, but at a time when Collierville’s population was only about 2,500 and our high school classes had about 60 students, everyone knew everybody.
Walter Brewer – center
Walter was called Wally back then and he had the reputation as a genuinely good guy. He played football, he ran track, and he never made waves. He dated my sister a couple of times and while he seemed to prefer a quiet school experience, he did not have that luxury. He lived on a street with a hill that had a dramatic drop in it and he was often called to join which one of us was riding our bicycles – sometimes trying to maintain control while riding our bicycles – down the thrill-inducing slope in front of his house.
There are often memories of high school classmates that in reflection are both good and bad. Looking back, I have nothing but warm memories of Wally. He was smart, he was kind and thoughtful, and he made friends easily.
I kept up with Wally after his 1967 high school graduation through his mother. She was a close friend of my mother. They went to the same church, they traveled near and far together, and they kept each other updated on their children’s lives.
It was not possible to find a couple in Collierville that was more highly regarded than Frances and Eugene Brewer – Wally’s parents and Craig’s grandparents. They were high school sweethearts. A classmate from those days once said they were the perfect couple – great-looking together and loved by all.
Her ancestors were pre-Civil War Collierville. She sang alto in the First Baptist Church choir and like my mother, she worked at a time when that was unusual for women in Collierville. Her husband was a decorated war hero. After I founded the high school newspaper, I wrote an article about his war heroism, his serious head wound, the operations that placed a steel plate in his head, and the way he was poorly treated by the Department of Defense which denied benefits despite interventions by Tennessee’s U.S. senators.
The Brewers were extravagantly proud of Wally. Although I can’t recall seeing him but maybe one time after high school, reports through his mother indicated that he was doing well; marrying Gail, a daughter from the Throneberry farm family in Fisherville and other Collierville High School student; and having children of his own, including Craig.
In those days In Collierville, it was said the Throneberry family was from “across the river” which meant the Wolf River. In another quirk of the times, the family’s last name could be pronounced “Thornberry” as often as “Throneberry.” Gail’s father – and Craig’s maternal grandfather – was Marv Throneberry (nicknamed Marvelous Marv), a major league baseball player who became legendary while playing for the New York Mets when it was setting the major league record for most losses in a season. When he died, the New York Times published his obituary. His brother, Faye, also played in the major leagues at the same time.
Proving that life too often does not deliver the fairness someone deserves, Wally was way too young when he died of a heart attack in 1998 at the age of 49. As a father, he had introduced Craig to great movies and directors and supported his cinema dreams. It was two years after his death that Craig’s The Poor & Hungry was released but not before his father suggested that it should be shot on a video camera to be more economical. Wally’s bequest to Craig helped pay for the film.
There’s no question that Wally shares in Craig’s success. I was thinking this while watching Song Sung Blue and imagining how proud Wally would have been and how Craig benefited from some really special DNA.
As the audience in our theater broke into applause when Craig Brewer’s name appeared on the screen as writer and director, I could only imagine what Wally’s reaction would be.
It would have been glorious to see.
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