Word: redcap
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Died. Willard Saxby Townsend, 61, onetime Chicago redcap who began organizing railroad porters in 1934, fought to gain employee status for redcaps (until 1938 most were paid entirely in tips), formed the International Brotherhood of Red Caps in 1937, brought his union (renamed the United Transport Service Employees) into the C.I.O. in 1942, later (1955) became one of two Negro vice presidents of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.; of a kidney ailment; in Chicago...
...last of the costumed, showman politicians, he shaded his cat eyes and weatherbeaten face under a white sombrero, was considered a dead-ringer for Will Rogers by Rogers himself. To become governor, he "hung on to Roosevelt's coattails and rode like hell." He once astonished a Washington redcap by demanding: "Hell, boy, where's the watering hole?" When President Roosevelt wanted him to nominate for a Washington job a citizen of South Dakota who was qualified both as a banker and a lawyer, Berry wired back that he didn't know anyone "that crooked." But when...