The Legend of Sonny Shaw -- sent in by Bob Walls:

The legendary fight between Sonny Shaw & Sherill Bowen!


Bob rememers the following.


I have a recollection of something that happened at school one day.

It envolved a fight between Sonny Shaw and Sherill Bowen.

It can only be classified as a "happening".




It started at lunch hour in the First Baptist Church parking lot with a

large crowd of spectators from our school. The fight had just gotten started,

when one of our teachers, I'm not sure who, came running over and broke it up.




Sonny, the crowd favorite, yelled to Sherill, "I'll meet you after school at

the Ft. Lauderdale Memorial Cemetary, and we will finish this there."



Needless to say, there was a large procession of cars, motorcycles, and motor

scooters on the way to the cemetary immediatlely after school. The fight had

barely gotten started, when the police arrived to again break it up.



At this point, someone shouted, "let's go to Naval Air". The procession continued

to one of the fields near the old Jr. High School. The end result was pretty much a

draw, much to the disappointment of many in the crowd!!!



The ironic part of this story is that both of these men have passed away, and

Sonny Shaw was laid to rest in the same cemetary on which he fought years earlier.



I would like to add that I heard from someone who knew Sonny, that not long before

he died in 1999, he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. I hope this is true.




Johnny (Sonny) Shaw


p.s. by Dave.

memories are just about all we got from 50 years ago...

I read a story like this and a bunch of memories come

pouring out -- the fight between Ritter Taylor and me.

(remind me to tell you about it sometime).