Death in 3's

Sadly I had three longtime friends to die recently. Their obituaries were in the paper today Ronnie Crowe, 81. Ronnie was the middle son of two other friends. Ronnie’s older brother was Buster Crowe, a prize winning professional news photographer. He died early; Ronnie youngest brother Robert is a Marietta historical photograph archivist and also he owned Hardy’s Portrait Studio on the Square. He was known for his wedding photography. As a matter of fact, he took our wedding pictures. And Horace Crowe, the three young men’s father, worked at Lockheed by day, and other times he was a sports writer and announcer for Marietta kids sports. The Crowes lived on Hedges Street in my formative years, across from my friend Sam Carsley. Robert Crowe married, moved to West Cobb, and became an advertisement executive. LaJohn Ivey Patterson. LaJohn was married to another friend, Jennings Patterson, who died recently. I think they married as soon as they became adults, or not long afterwards. I will always remember LaJohn’s very happy and friendly smile. Tony Partain. I see by the obituary that Tony’s real name was Wayne A. Tony Partain. I bet the A. was for Anthony. Tony and I were in the same classes at Waterman Street Grammar School. Tony was very quiet and very nice. I don’t remember Tony in high school. Either we parted ways, or his parents moved out of the city of Marietta. Tony lived on Hawkins Street, about 2 blocks from me. Hawkins ran from Delk Street to Butler Street. I remember once I was invited to his birthday party. He received one present, some kind of toy that had bells and whistles, so to speak. I remember I was so impressed with it, I accidentally damaged it. My mother bought him another brand-new whatever. Boy, was I embarrassed.