Letter to the Editor: Wild about Harry
BY Terry R. Bales, Tulsa
Sunday, February 10, 2013
2/10/13 at 8:20 AM
Harry Dean Snow started Snow's Furniture in August 1979. Even though Harry's enterprising store is now in different hands, it prospers today because of the work he invested in it, and his spirit of generosity.
We both grew up one block south of Apache Street, and went to kindergarten together. This was a bleak area, but H.D. became a well-liked and respected businessman.
As teenagers we passed through Dawson to get to any part of south Tulsa. Walking out of a mom-and-pop store in Dawson one day, a pickup truck full of raggedy kids was parked in the seedy front lot.
We stood and stared at the kids. Harry asked me how much money I had on me. I said I had five or six bucks. Harry looked in his pocket and said he had about the same. Grinning, he said, "Let's pass 'em out." That's what we did.
Harry died 20 years ago, the only one of four to be killed in his own plane as it failed to gain altitude and crashed.
He passed out a lot of dollars to raggedy kids and needy people during his life, and had a lot of best friends.
He was, always, the best guy I ever knew.
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