The Man Who Made Me A Kentucky Colonel: The Late Dr. Lee E. Elias

Every once in a while I think we all come across one of those particularly amazing individuals in our lives.

I met once such man several years ago when I was working for a national corporation here in Bowling Green, Ky., when I was a sales and service professional.  I had met him once before in town prior to him coming work at our place of employment. But I didn't really know him or much about his background. Needless to say when he came to work for us, I got to know him pretty quickly and I witness him "set the woods on fire" as they say in the sales and service industry. As a service professional, he took me into new places that I knew what they look like from the outside but I had never been on the inside of them before. Because of his astonishing connections with people in our community and incredible sales capabilities, he made those things happen.  A lot of those places were government buildings and entities where the general public was not allowed. One such place was the TVA Paradise Fossil Fuel plant in Drakesboro, Ky., in Muhlenberg County. That place was daunting! I was overwhelmed when I entered the gates to service. I had no clue where to go or what to do because that place was humongous. Plus the workers always seemed preoccupied with their work and seemed to be bothered in order to take time help out a third party service person. Another place was a dynamite manufacturing plant in Muhlenberg County also. I had to have a security clearance to get in there plus wear booties on my shoes while I was escorted around because I go into rooms where they had top secret high tech water jet laser cutters and things of that nature. Once there was a scientist from Israel there inspecting products as I was working.  I was always the one man in a uniform driving a white Ford Ranger pickup truck around Bowling Green and Southcentral Kentucky entering these places on a mission.  He was able land some high dollar service accounts and quickly rose to be one of the top sales person in the company. He won all kinds of sales awards in his short career with us.  In the meantime, he helped me make a lot of money during those years he was employed with us I remember.

His name was the late Dr. Lee E. Elias. The following was taken from his obituary in the Bowling Green Daily News. "He was originally from Atlanta and was a highly decorated Marine and Army Vietnam veteran.  He served three tours of combat duty with the 3rd Marine Division in Force Reconnaissance. He later entered the Army as medic in Korea and Hawaii.  Among the many honors head had received was the Soldier's Medal for saving a life at the risk of his own.  He was also Southern Baptist Minister and for many years he ministered to college students on the campus of Baylor University, Texas Christian University and Western Kentucky University."  I remember Dr. Elias fondly and I remember we had several civil debates on being a Protestant vs. being a Catholic since I was a former Baptist and then Catholic convert. But I stood my ground with him and he respected my beliefs about being a Catholic. I also tested my faith too during those conversations. One day he offered to make me a Kentucky Colonel.  He said he had connections with the charitable organization in Louisville since he was a Kentucky Colonel himself and that he knew the Kentucky governor personally. I thanked and then asked him why he wanted to do that for me. He said he respected me and that I was a hard worker for our company. He also said I had helped him achieve his sales goals.  I thanked him again and a few weeks later, I received my certificate in the mail.  I had it framed and it still hangs on my wall in the den at home to this day where I have lived for 25 years now. And proudly tell them world that I am Kentucky Colonel thanks to Dr. Elias.

The last time I saw Dr. Elias was the parking lot of where we worked in 2005.  He had just gotten back from ministering to the people in need in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina had hit down there in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast. He was a solid man of God and fearless. He was also a highly educated man with a keen sense of intellect and humor.  Apparently, he passed away about four years later in 2009 from complications of an illness that had lingered on for years after the he time he spent in the Vietnam during the war. R.I.P. Dr. Elias. I am sure you are missed by all who knew and loved you.

Wild Bucks, Honky Tonks And Other Crazy Stories From The American South: The Strange Woman On Indianola Street In Bowling Green, Ky.

This Is An On-Going Short Story Fictional Series

By Wild Bucks


    It was February 22, 1988, exactly 30 years-ago today.

    Bob Richards had just moved to Bowling Green about a month before and landed his first job as a life insurance salesman right out of college for a small company from Louisville.  It wasn't exactly his dream job but it was all he could find at the time since the economy wasn't humming liked it used to be in Southcentral Kentucky.  Several factories in the area had closed down during the downturn of the economy in the 80's and had laid off a bunch of employees.  Spring would be arriving soon, so Bob would be stepping up his door to door sales pitches and tactics  But on this particular day, he decided go ahead and go door knocking anyway since the sun was shining and the temperature was unseasonably warm.  He walked down Indianola Street knocking on doors and having them slammed on his face.  However, he approached one house that seemed very strange.  When he walked on the front porch, he could see a large picture of Jesus hanging on the wall through the window. He also saw a sign attached to the wall that said, "No Smoking or Cursing Allowed!"

    Bob decided to go ahead and knock on the door.  When he did, a tall, thin, middle-age woman came to the door with heavy makeup on and dyed red hair.  Her face was not very attractive but Bob could tell that she seemed she have lived a hard life.  Bob introduced himself and asked her if she was interested if any life insurance.  She told him that she was uninsurable because she has had two open heart surgeries.  She invited Bob to come in and he accepted the offer. After a few minutes of discussion at the kitchen table, Bob looked up and pointed to the wall and said, "Are you Catholic?"

   "No son, I'm Pentecostal," she said.

"Oh," Bob said, "I just thought maybe you were Catholic since you had a lot of pictures of Jesus hanging on the wall."

    "No honey, he's just my best friend and he loves me very much," she said.  "I've actually met Jesus before."

   "Really? You mean, you've actually met Jesus? You're kidding, right?" Bob asked.

   "No, I mean it," the woman said.

   "Well, can you tell me where you met him at?" Bob asked curiously.

   The woman told Bob it happened when she was having her first heart attack.  She had told her son to help her get to the bed.  When he did, she passed out and he called 911. She said she felt as if she was out for a long time.  She said that she also felt her spirit leave her body.

  "When my spirit left my body, I went straight to my mansion.  It was a beautiful mansion and I was standing in the middle of it.  It had no furniture.  I was saying, 'It's so beautiful and another a man was there.  But I could not see the man's face. I was telling him, 'This is mine.'  And man kept saying, 'I don't think you are one of us.' And I said, 'I am too and I have lived here before.'"  She said that some other people were in the mansion too and they had black hair, curly hair and blonde hair.  She she their feet were not touching the floor and neither were hers.  She said heard a voice called out to her and said, "There is 'The One' who will know if you're one of us or not."  She said there was a crystal clear walkway circling around the mansion with pink bricks on top of it.  The voice then said that they would check the bricks first. One of the persons inside walks outside of the mansion goes over and picks up a pink brick off the walkway to examine it.  And then the voice says, "This is not enough.  I will take you back to 'The One' who will know if you are one of us or not."

   The woman goes on to tell the story to Bob. "So they walked us behind the mansion together to a little wood shed.  We went inside the shed and on a bale of hay laid Baby Jesus.  The voice then spoke in many languages and in other tongues."  The woman said she was awe of Baby Jesus and that she could see no ends to him.  All sort of sparkles of magnificent, bright colors were dancing around his head and body.  She said all she could see when Baby Jesus rose from the bale of hay was his robe, sandals and long hair.

   "His hair hung over his face and it was white as snow," she said.  The baby laid his hand on her shoulder and said, "Yes, she has lived here before but I will send you back because it is not finished," Baby Jesus said.

  "But I do not want to go back! Please do not send me back!"  she said. "All of sudden, I woke up in a hospital room and I had open heart surgery with a lot stitches in my chest. And I kept telling everyone, I had an out of body experience."

  After a while, Bob thank the woman for sharing her story with him.  He told her it was time for him to leave.  He walked out the front door and walked down Indianola Street to Broadway Avenue where his car was parked.  After he got into car, he decided to drive over the Little Brown Jug and have some beers with cheese and crackers.  He also decided that he would not tell his wife that evening when got home about the crazy story he had heard.  He drank his beer, put a quarter in the jukebox and put on some Hank Williams Jr. and lit a cigarette. For a brief moment, he tried to forget about his encounter with the strange woman on Indianola Street.

“This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”