December 14, 2022Chevy Chase, Maryland After Emmett won the primary, the summer of 1912 was a cakewalk. All Emmett had to do, pretty much, was keep up the image cultivated by Frank Mayes and the rest of the Florida Democratic Party leadership: Be positive, stay out of trouble, say nothing […]
April 9, 2022Chevy Chase, Maryland Emmett’s command performance for Whit Kelly in Columbus, Georgia on October 24, 1911 wasn’t solely to placate Kelly. Someone else was watching this play out for a good reason, and it wasn’t Byrd Kelly. It was Frank Mayes. Mayes and the Florida Democratic Executive Committee […]
September 29, 20153:15 pmPensacola, Florida When Nancy and I returned to the hotel, we found an empty table near the gigantic coffee pot. Nancy made us both two cups of coffee, while I pulled out my laptop and a folder of notes, a spreadsheet, archived newspaper clips, and letters, and […]
September 29, 2019Chevy Chase, Maryland Two things concern me about this stage in Emmett’s story, three years before he ran for office as U.S. Congressman. First, in 1908, Emmett was drinking alcoholically. I believe he knew (and his family/friends knew) he either drank more and/or could not handle alcohol as […]
One of the things I’ve always found curious about Emmett Wilson’s life was why he never lived on his own, never owned a house, never had his own apartment in which he was responsible for everything (food, furniture, utilities and the like). Emmett was a bachelor with an active and […]
The date? March 3, 1908, the day after Mardi Gras. The place? The private dining room in the The Osceola Club, Pensacola, Florida The occasion/connection? Good question. This is another oddball jigsaw puzzle in the life of Emmett Wilson that I like to work out. Not to sound disparaging of anyone sitting around […]
Tell my story. 