Letter To The Editor: Remembering L. Wade Childress
Every once in a while, I make a trip up to Prairie Du Chien to check on the towboat L. Wade Childress and to see if it is still at the marina and if the cutting torch has finally put an end to an old veteran of the barge line industry. I will admit, and make no mistake about it, I am a sentimental old river rat and remember the Childress along with the Frank C Rand and the W.S. Rhea of Mississippi Valley Barge Line. When I go to visit it sitting beached, I see more and more how downhill it has become, and how she used to look in her prime, and all who had worked on her since her day she was built back in 1948 at Dravo and named for the founder and former board chairman. Valley Line was a long-time name in the river industry going back to 1929 and served customers along the Mississippi, Ohio & Illinois River Valley. I also think about the former Dravo shipyard that built these beautiful towboats, all virtually extinct and just a memory now. Frank C Rand was scrapped, and the W.S. Rhea running in South America certainly no longer has the nice lines when she was built in 1951 and the Frank C Rand in 1947.
The L. Wade Childress has her windows broken out, her name barely visible other than the lettering on the nameboard forward of the pilot house. The curtains, all torn and tattered, still wave in the breeze that once was home to many of the crew members and the backbone of the industry. I know there are readers who remember Robert Hayner, Charles Null, Clayton E Hanlin Jr., Norman Hillman and so many others. And where does the time go? It seems like yesterday.
The L Wade Childress is a survivor, and, after that icy cold bath the Childress had in December of 1985 when she sank off of Hall Towing at Ft. Madison, she was a write-off and was bound to St. Louis to get the torch to her. Maybe it would have been a more dignified way to go rather than what it looks like now, but at the same time, it serves as a monument to those who work the river and keep the commerce rolling along. Thanks for the great memories as a kid and adult, L. Wade Childress, you are not forgotten. An old towboat never dies. It just rusts away.
John Miller
Featured photo caption: The L. Wade Childress. (Photo courtesy of John Miller)
