Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 19 February 2004 — Page 15

The Muncie Times • February 19, 2004 • Page 15

Boxer Armstrong won 144 of 175 fights

By Reasons and Patrick

Henry J; ckson was laying track for he railroad in Missouri when a gust of wind changed his life. The wind blew a newspaper in his face and in that paper he saw an article about a featherweight boxing champ named Kid Chocolate. Kid Chocolate had

just earned $75,000 for a ight in New York and that act set Jackson to thinking. "I thought to myself, $75,000 for half an hour's work. It's gotta beat this.! So I put my tool in the box , nd quit. il I told the boys I /as gonna be champ. They aughed.” In the beginning, Jackson fought around St. Louis under the ring name of Honey Mellody. He shed that name late, however, and fought his way to pugilistic immortality as Henry Armstrong. Hammering Hank is the only fighter in ring history to hold three world titles at the same time. In 1938, he reigned as featherweight, lightweight and welterweight champion of the world.

During his career, Armstrong fought 175 professional bouts, won 144 of them (97 by knock-outs) and earned nearly a million dollars. With the exception of Joe Louis, Armstrong fought more title bouts than any fighter in modern history-26. Louis fought 27. Armstrong also compiled one of boxing's longest winning streaks. From 1937 to 1939, he punched his way to 46 straight victories, 39 of them knockouts. Armstrong's record won him a place in 1954 to boxing's Hall of Fame. Named along with him were Louis and Jack Dempsey. The 11th of 15 children in his family, Armstrong was born in Columbus, Miss., in 1912.

His mother moved with him and six of her other children to St. Louis where Armstrong attended Vashon High School. The Depression had just begun when he quit the railroad and took to boxing. After fighting a while in St. Louis, Armstrong moved to Los Angeles where he shined shoes during the day and fought at night. He got his big break in 1936 when he beat Baby Arizmendi-and A1 Jolson, the famous singer, saw his potential, bought his contract and vowed to make him a champion. The next year, on Oct. 29, 1937, Armstrong knocked out Petey Sarron and won the featherweight crown. He outboxed Barney Ross and won the welterweight crown by a

decision on May 31, 1938. He took the lightweight crown from Lou Ambers on Aug. 17, 1938 to become boxing's only triple champ. In 1940, he came close to becoming middleweight champ when he fought Ceferino Garcia to a draw. Armstrong quit the ring in 1945 and, after some ups and downs in a battle with alcohol, turned to religion. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1951 and became assistant pastor of St. Louis' First Baptist Church. He also became active in youth work, serving as executive director of the Herbert Hoover Boys Club.

Religious artist tanners honored 32 years after death

By Reasons and Patrick Henry O. Tanner was strolling through a park in Philadelphia one day when he happened upon a landscape artist at work. Young Tanner watched in fascination as the artist deftly brushed and dabbed paint to canvas and re-created the wooded scene. Then he went home and tried to draw the scene himself, on the back of his geography text. Tanner made the decision that day that he would become an artist. He was 13. For more than 20 years. Tanner struggled, studied and painted before his perseverance-and talentpaid off. He won acclaim in Europe as a religious artist.

And he lived to see some of his major Biblical scenes hang in the world's great museums. Born in Pittsburgh in 1859, Tanner was the eldest of seven children born to Benjamin Tanner, a minister, and his wife, Sarah, who later moved their family to Philadelphia. After deciding that he would make a career of painting, young Tanner spent many of his afterschool hours painting or in the galleries studying the works of others. Around 1880, Tanner began formal training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, studying there several years. Then he took a position as a drawing instructor at Clark

University in Atlanta. He sold an occasional painting but had to open a photographic studio to supplement his income. Two of Tanner's early patrons were Methodist clergymen who bought some of his wok for Wilberforce University. One of them also arranged an exhibition of Tanner's work in Cincinnati. Not a single picture was sold at the exhibit so his benefactor bought the entire collection, thereby making it possible for Tanner to go to Europe to study. In Paris, Tanner, who had been painting landscapes, turned to Biblical subjects and met with almost immediate success.

In 1895, Tanner's works began to win medals and in 1897, his "Resurrection of Lazarus" was purchased by the French government and hung in the Luxembourg Museum. After that his reputation was established. Tanner remained in France and married Jesse Olssen, a San Francisco singer. They had one son, Jesse. Though recognized in Europe, few Americans ever saw Tanner's works. Paintings o his were bought by Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Newark Museum and the Milwaukee Art Center. But until 1969-32 years after Tanner's death-no

representative exhibit of his work had been held in the United States. That year the oversight was corrected when 80 of his paintings, drawings and studies were shown in six major cities.

Black History