Meeting a legend...

 Don Henley had another birthday this past week. To celebrate, here's a snapshot of how my mom met the man. 

As we travel through life, sometimes we meet folks, but never know who they are. You know, it’s kind of “just in passing” thing. When you grow up small town Texas, you don’t expect to “celebrity spot”, like my oldest used to do when she lived in L.A. Sure, George Strait and many others played the Orange Blossom Special, not far out of town just off I-30. And you’d see Ray Price (RIP Ray) having breakfast at the Alps from time to time. And since the North End of town skirted I-30, you might see a celebrity bus stopped to fuel with diesel. But celebrities just didn’t come to town that often.

This is Randy, and here’s the story of how my mother met Don Henley. FYI, Don was born in Gilmer, Texas, about 40 minutes from my hometown, heading south traveling down Hwy 271. But he was raised about 45 minutes away out east on Hwy 49, in Linden, Texas, county seat of Cass County. Last I knew, Linden had less than 2,500 residents, so Don Henley is a BIG deal in these parts. Again, small town Texas.

My mom was born and raised in Kelsey, Texas, a Mormon community outside of Gilmer, Texas. They had no prior contact. Families don’t know each other. But Mom was going to meet one of the most famous musicians to come out of Texas. And he might as well have been a ditch digger.

Mom worked as the secretary for the County Judge of Titus County for numerous years. I’m not gonna call and ask how long, but I believe about 17 years. She met politicians, and lots of folks famous for all of the wrong reasons. She worked with a number of Judges, ,some she liked, others she didn’t. Her job put her in a position to gather lots of gossip. And no, she didn’t share. Which is why I thought it odd that I came to know about Mr. Henley. That’s what she called him.

She didn’t remember the day, and was a bit cloudy of the year, but one day Mr. Henley walked into her office, asking after the Judge. Who was not in. Mr. Henley insisted that he had important business, and when would the Judge return. Well, Mom did what assistants do (remember, that used to be a secretarial job), and scheduled an appointment for early afternoon. And then went to lunch.
About 1:30, as agreed, Mr. Henley reappeared at the door, hands were shook and “howdy’s” exchanged, and the Judge and Mr. Henley headed into the Judge’s office. Mom had to make some copies and briefly overheard the short exchange of:

Judge: “Mr Henley, what do you do for a living?”
Mr. Henley: “I’m a musician of sorts.”

It never occurred to Mom that this “musician of sorts” might be somebody famous. She just went about her job.
After a short period of time, Mr. Henley came out.

“Mrs. Taylor, I want to thank you for helping me today. Like you, my time is important, and you recognized that and made my issues today easy to handle. Thank you, again.”
And with that, Mr. Henley was gone.

Within a few minutes, a number of ladies from various offices in the Court House came running into Mom’s office.

“Where is he? Where is he?”
“Who?” Mom asked.
“Well, Don Henley!” they exclaimed.
Mom replied, “He’s gone. What’s the big deal?”
Someone asked, “Don’t you know who he is?”
Mom answered, “No, should I?”
Someone else exclaimed, “He’s an Eagle!”

And Mom, in her normal voice, said, “Oh, he plays football”...

And that is how my Mom met Don Henley. She never had a clue who he was. But when she saw the DVD “Live From Australia”, she said one simple thing. “That’s Mr. Henley. He was a nice man”.