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Walter and Covey Duckworth
By Voda Beth Gradine
As I was surfing TV channels to avoid watching the inauguration on Wednesday, I stopped on TVLAND to watch “Bonanza.”
Watching “Bonanza,” I was reminded of the extra set of grandparents I was lucky enough to claim during my younger years, Walter and Covey Duckworth.
Water and Covey lived on the opposite end of the 700 block of Main Street as me. Every Sunday night, I would run as fast as I could from my front door to theirs to watch “Bonanza” with them on their color television. Covey would watch me as I ran, complimenting on how fast I was. “Bonanza” began at 8 p.m. when the fire on the map came on. This was our special time. And, as time went by, I started visiting them even earlier to watch “The Wonderful World of Disney” at 6 p.m.
The Duckworth’s lived in the big house across the street from Hudman Funeral Home. All the neighborhood kids would play on their wraparound porch. And, even with all the noise and screaming that we did, they were never upset.
They were also good friends of my parents, despite being over 10 years older than them. What seemed like every Saturday night, Walter and Covery, Pauline and Dee Coleman and my parents would join at one of their homes to play cards. And I, being the only child of the six, was very spoiled by them all. Although there were other couples that played with them from time to time, those six played all the time even occasionally traveling to Ruidoso to play.
During my favorite Ruidoso trip, the three couples stayed at my aunt and uncle’s cabin in the Upper Canyon. Being, snow was everywhere, forcing the couples to park down by the road and hike up the mountain to reach the cabin. Attempting to bring up the food they had packed for the weekend, everyone was slipping and sliding in the snow. Walter, being the “old man” of the group eventually became tired of watching them all falling and laughing. So, he grabbed a box and began trudging up the mountain to show them how it was done. Making it only a few steps, Walter went down, landing on the box he was carrying. And, as he raised his head, broken eggs were dripping off of his chin, making the rest break out in laughter.
Walter was born on January 23, 1891 and was the third son of Ira and Lee Durham Duckworth. Raised on several ranches around Garza and Scurry county, he worked as a cowboy and was known as one of the best horse wrangles around. Later, he owned Texaco Distributorship in Post. He was a quiet man but when he talked it was always important and you could see in his eyes how much he enjoyed being around you.
Eula Covey was born on January 29, 1901. After she was grown, she came to Post with a friend. Here, she met and married Walter. Being older when they married, they had no children of their own. However, they claimed all of Walter’s brothers’ girls, Mary Florence Cross, Ira Franklin (Dude) McLaurin, Frances Lee Camp and Mary Margaret Norman, as their own.
I was very blessed to have these two great people as extra grandparents and also just as friends.
Like me, I hope you all have special people in your life to reminisce on good memories of.
