Memory keeper
Former photojournalist’s lens captured historic events
Bob Williams’ memory of one of his first pictures published in The Commercial Appeal is as vivid as the actual print itself.
Williams was assigned to shoot a collision of two trains in Marion, Arkansas, at night in unfamiliar territory. After crossing the Harahan Bridge, he began following the railroad tracks.
“I ended up taking these particular (tracks) and it was night and I couldn’t see anything hardly,” Williams said. “I met a guy coming my way. I asked him if he knew where the wreck was and he said just stay on this track and you’ll find it.”
Williams captured a picture of the mangled trains with a human arm draped over the side of one of the train’s cars.
It was one of the thousands of stories Williams, 90, was able to tell through his pictures during a career that spanned 33 years at The Commercial Appeal. Samples of his work are on display at the Cordova Branch Library through October. A reception in his honor will be held at the library at 3 p.m. Saturday.
The exhibit ranges from historical events in the Memphis area to dramatic feature shots.
“There are some wonderful crowd shots of candidate Richard Nixon and his wife Pat in 1960 campaigning here,” said Nancy Campbell of the Cordova Library. “And then four years later, there are wonderful shots of President Lyndon Johnson, who’s running for the first time on his own, campaigning in Memphis.”
His most memorable assignment was covering the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Williams was working on the desk as a picture editor when the call came in that King had been shot at the Lorraine Motel.
He initially told his two photographers, who had just completed an assignment out east, to head to the hotel, before heading over himself after realizing he was closer.
After making a left on to Main Street from Union Avenue, Williams encountered the ambulance with King inside. He snapped a quick picture, then decided to head to the hotel rather than follow the ambulance to the hospital.
He saw a police officer guarding the box containing the gun James Earl Ray had ditched. Williams asked the officer if he would lift the lid so he could get a picture of the gun.
“He took a yellow pencil out of his pocket and lifted the lid of the box with it, and I saw the end of the gun barrel, and made a picture of it,” Williams said. “Then, I shot the overall box.”
After serving in World War II, Williams, a native of Amite, Louisiana, ran a studio on Madison for three years before joining The Commercial Appeal. He married his wife, Jo, 83, in 1950.