On the fateful day of September 16, 1939 in the
isolated expanses of west Texas farmlands near the
little settlement of O'Brien, Texas on a dirt poor
farm there was born to a poor couple with an eight
year old girl a blessed little boy who was so poor he had to come into the world sans clothes. Being as
this child was definately special they named him
Benny Ray Davenport, which means in Cherokee-- "You
are going to have a tough life kid."
A year or so after the birth of the blessed child the family move to Houston, Texas where the father worked in the ship yards for the war effort. WWII the big
one that was in all the newspapers. At age five my
parents divorced and I went to live with my
Grandparents on the south side of Fort Worth,
Texas.
When I was three I fell down a flight of stairs and
hit my head on the corner of a floor furnace grate
and it caused my eyes to cross and me to stutter very badly. Being that small with maladies like that and
wearing glasses too boot I learned the cruelty of
ignorant people at a very young age. To escape the
constant taunting I used to find solace and serenity
in being alone in the beauty of nature spending
countless hours sitting in creek beds in the woods.
When I was 12 I had my eyes straightend by surgery
and didn't need the glasses any more. Also at that
time I started overcoming my severe stuttering by
constantly keeping three tiny stones under my tongue
at all times and was almost completely over it in
about a year and a half. That was a great relief to
not be "different" from ignorant people and have them taunt and tease you for it.
For more insight on cruel taunting
behavior click on the Y? link at the bottom of the
page.
Throughout my school years I constantly moved back
and forth from Fort Worth, Texas to Los Angeles,
California and vicinity living with many different
family members. At 16 I joined and served three
years in the U.S. Navy getting to see a great deal of the world and preparing me to be self sufficient as
an adult.
When I got out of the Navy I moved to Los Angeles,
California and married at 21 and became a Union
Roofer. We had two children. A boy, Benny Allen and a girl, Tina Louise. In 1967 I swithced work and
became an Operating Engineer. In all those years I
was a part time musician working construction days
and playing music nights and weekends. I played
guitar, rythm, lead, and did vocals and fronted. In
1972 I divorced. In 1975 I moved to Texas.
In Texas I was a musician for a few years playing
bass and having a good time. Like Waylon says, "The
Honky Tonks of Texas were my natural second home." I remarried and in October of 1983 had a son Daniel.
In February of 1984 I was working putting sprinkler
systems in commercial buildings when a steel pipe
fell out of a ceiling and hit me on top of the head
and slammed my head into a brick wall I was standing
next to giving me massive brain damage. I had a
slack jaw, slurred speach, trouble standing erect,
loss of hand eye coordination just to name a few
things as a result. I overcame the physical
difficulties through martial arts earning a few belts in four systems, Karate, Kung Fu, Judo and Ju Jitsu.
Shortly after my accident I was divorced and it was
kind of tough at times trying to rear a small child
with the kinds of problems I had. Without the aid of my very loyal intelligent dog Sheena (Shep/Dobie mix) and the kind nature of the child I don't think I
could have held us together. They are the real
success and heroes of my story. We had to have
Sheena put to sleep n 1993 to due advanced age. We
will always love you Sheena! You were the
Greatest!
Between 1988 and 1990 I cofounded two first of their
kind in our area programs for disabled people. I am
no longer involved in that and enjoy my retirement
and rearing Daniel on the lake and have become a full fledged netaholic.
Get your own Free Home
Page