Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993 TAG: 9302100208
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
FOR ARTHUR ASHE, A LONG GOODBYE
"I NEVER HAD an older brother, but I think if I did I'd want him to be Arthur Ashe," said a doctor who came from New York to pay his last respects to the man who was much more than a tennis star.
Past the statue of Stonewall Jackson, past the spot where Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederacy, thousands of mourners filed Tuesday night to pay final respects to Arthur Ashe Jr., a black man once barred from the city's white tennis courts.
The fact that Ashe was one of the greatest tennis players who ever lived was only part of the reason so many shivered for hours to view his body, lying in state in the Executive Mansion.
"I didn't know him as an athlete. I knew him more for social things, like the anti-apartheid movement," said Tamara Cavell, who at 16 wasn't even born when Ashe won Wimbledon in 1975 over Jimmy Connors.
Ashe, born in Richmond in 1943, will be buried in the city today. Lifelong friend Gov. Douglas Wilder has ordered state flags flown at half-staff. He and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young will deliver eulogies at the funeral.
Athletes, celebrities, media and fans from around the world began arriving Tuesday in Richmond. The public viewing began at 5 p.m.; the first man in line was a physician from New York City who arrived three hours early.
"I never had an older brother, but I think if I did I'd want him to be Arthur Ashe," said Dr. Edwin Naamon, 43. "I'm an African-American man. I have to look for role models, and there aren't many. . . . Arthur Ashe wanted to have a life where you are noted for the content of your character. That's not the way the world stands now, but I think he was trying to change that."
Just behind Naamon was William H. Spencer, 64. "I'm a native Richmonder, so I knew him," Spencer volunteered.
"Oh, you knew him?" asked Beverly Mitchell, 55, who drove up with her husband from Hertford, N.C.
"Yes, and I just talked to Doug Wilder not two hours ago. We used to go to the same church," said Spencer, suddenly the center of attention. "I remember Arthur used to hit that ball down on Brook Road, there, and I remember him at the swimming pool, too. There was tennis courts right up the street from the swimming pool. I used to go around and look at him play. Everybody knew he was good."
Spencer kept an eye on the front of the Executive Mansion as family and dignitaries came and went - including tennis player Yannick Noah, football Hall-of-Famer Willie Lanier, tennis commentator Bud Collins, golf pro Curtis Strange and TV personality Bryant Gumbel.
"There's his daughter," Spencer shouted when Ashe's 6-year-old, Camera, emerged in a group. "There's his uncle. I think that's his uncle," he said later, and then: "If you want to get a picture, there's Andrew Young. Here he comes. Here he comes."
Young, looking tired and strained, spoke briefly with a group of reporters. "I tell you, it's a strange mixture of emotions," he said. "You know, Arthur's life, coming from playing on a public tennis court to where one of his best friends is now governor, to see his body lying in state now - it's a long way to come."
No black tennis player has repeated Ashe's feat of multiple championships because "we don't have people who can stand the strain and pressure of racism in our society, [and] the loneliness," Young said. "Arthur sort of steeled himself against all the stings and taunts. He decided he was going to deal with it in his life."
Ashe dealt with it, in the words of many who waited out in the cold, by being a "gentleman's gentleman."
Tamara Cavell, an 11th-grader, was there with her father. "She had the honor of having her picture taken with [Ashe] in Byrd Park last summer," said Winston Cavell. "She had her arm around his neck, so I guess she'll value that picture forever."
Tamara had gone to the downtown park to see Ashe give a children's tennis clinic. Now she was escorting her thin, stooped father carefully up the steps of the mansion and to the back dining room, where Ashe lay in a dark wood-toned casket.
Ashe's face looked thin and pale. He wore a dark gray suit, a blue shirt and a rust-colored tie. Virginia National Guard officers stood in dress uniform at either end of the casket, which also was flanked by a Virginia flag and a U.S. flag. Two arrangements of roses and baby's breath sat in silver vases on a table behind the casket. Recorded organ music played softly.
Tamara and her father paused only for a moment, then moved on as others pressed behind them.
"I was thinking about things he said, I guess," Winston Cavell, 78, said when he got outside. "He talked about how things he did were for himself; you know, tennis. But that he would love to have done things for other people - invented a new chemical, or a medicine, something to help others."
Cavell paused, smiled and looked at the mourners waiting to get into the mansion. The line stretched past the Capitol, then doubled back and disappeared around the corner behind the Executive Mansion. Several thousand people, and still arriving in droves.
"You know," Cavell said, "I think he underestimated himself."