Sermon Central
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The Murder Of Willie Stokes Jr. A Young Gambler ...
Contributed by Bret Toman on Jul 17, 2010 (message contributor)
The murder of Willie Stokes Jr. a young gambler on the south side of Chicago attracted local attention when the family had an auto-body shop outfit his coffin as a Cadillac Seville, complete with trunk and front grille, windshield and dashboard, silver spoke wheels, working headlights and tail lights, and Stoke's vanity license plate. Newspaper photos showed the embalmed gambler, like a display in a wax museum, sitting at the steering wheel of his coffin-car in a hot-pink suit, with 5 hundred dollar bills stuffed between his left thumb and forefinger. Flannery O' Connor responded to this folly with a short story titled, "You can't be any poorer than dead."
(From Rumours, Philip Yancey)
Philip Yancey comments I imagine at some level even the Stokes family realized that inescapable truth as they lowered the well-appointed coffin into the ground.
*** There is a picture of Mr. Stokes in his coffin car on the internet, just google Willie Stokes Jr. ***
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