David Kent ¹⁶⁰

   Another name for David was Herman Adkins Jr.

  General Notes:

Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:12:12 -0800 (PST)
From: JOEY KENT <therulingclass@sbcglobal.net> [this is the son of David Kent and Loraine Jordan]
Subject: Re: Another Adkins line...
To: Bo <lhagen@vt.edu>
Bo:
Thanks for the info and the help. I tried to get help with a death certificate but they said they had to know the death date in order to pull it! So, instead I sent a letter overnight to a gal at the Henry Co. courthouse requesting she pull the succession, if there is one. As far as I know, William Henry and Lillie Bell lived in Roanoke most of their lives and he died there. The pics I have of him are dated 1934, so I know he made it that far. I believe I located a grave marker for Lillie Bell that puts her death at 1953 in Norfolk (both her sons lived there at the time so that makes sense). The death range for William Henry would be 1935-65 although I think it's safe to go with 1935-55. His birthday might not be correct, could be as late as 1871, although I believe the 1869 date is accurate.
My father's story: according to my mother, he changed his name as an adult because he hated "Herman" growing up - was apparently called "Herm the Worm" in school! I think the truth of the matter is that his folks divorced when he was six and the mother had bad feelings towards the dad. She was a one room school teacher and had a big influence on my dad, so maybe that's why he didn't want to be Herman, Jr. as an adult. Also, at age 15 he went to visit a cousin in New York one summer and ended up going to see the kid's dad who worked at Radio City Music Hall. They spent days watching radio dramas being made and, at one point, my father was asked to lend his mature sounding voice to an extra's part. Next thing you know, he moved to New York and was doing 70 radio dramas a week. He became a member of Orson Welles' famed Mercury Theater and had 3 speaking parts in the historic War Of The Worlds radio scare. He stayed at it for several years, at one point rooming with Welles and John Houseman. Got severly chewed out one day by Cecil B. DeMille for being late to rehearsal (he was playing stickball with other kids out in the street). Cecil screamed that he was acting like a "f---ing kid!" and my father replied "That's because I AM a f---ing kid!" and quit for good. He returned to Roanoke, changed his name to David Kent, wrote fiction with his local buddies Nelson Bond and Ray Bradbury, and worked for WROV before WW2 got him. After the war, he went to work for WTON in Staunton. Began working for a chain of stations helping them set up new ones, did a gig in Minnesota or some such cold spot and then requested the first opening somewhere warm. That ended up being KTBS here in Shreveport. He landed here in 1947, met my mom doing local theater, and decided to stay. Started a political ad agency and ended up moving to Washington as Administrative Assistant to Congressman Joe Waggonner of Louisiana. Worked on the side as a presidential speech writer. Moved back here in 1971 and bought the historic Louisiana Hayride country music show and was its producer for 15 years. Turned back to writing in later years and wrote two books about Lizzie Borden before his death in 1992 at age 68. So, there you have my dad's story in a nutshell.
I appreciate your efforts on my behalf. Will see if I can get you a working link to my site.

JK

David married Living