maryspage

MARY'S PAGE - GRIEF

GRIEF - is not to be borne alone. Webster defines it as " pain; suffering from
bereavement, remorse; " You may have encountered grief at sometime in your life. I
have had grief in mine and I share it with you openly, with nothing held back.

GRIEF SHARE

MARY LOGAN (WIFE OF DON LOGAN)

“We were both young when we met. We dated for
a very short time and married on June 4, 1958 in
Dallas County, Texas. I was a DJ at KCUL in   Fort
Worth, Texas and entertainer on the “Cowtown
Hoedown”. An acquaintance of hers had a record
out on Starday Records and she brought it to me,
asking me to play it. I did not like it and I told her I
wouldn’t play it. She said, “Well, so it’s not by a big
name star. But Elvis IS a big name star and you
don’t play him”. At that time a lot of people were
kind   of angry   with the way Elvis’ career    had
changed directions. I was not playing Elvis records
and as I thought about what she said, I realized
that a country station could play Elvis and I did
start playing Elvis records and it was accepted,
warmly, by my listeners.      Mary met Elvis once,
when she was barely a teen in Texarkana, Texas
through her   cousin, Jimmie Martin, who was a
musician in a group that played on the Louisiana
Hayride and was on the show with Elvis that night
in Texarkana.”

“Elvis had always played a part in our lives. I almost got to interview him (I think) in Ft Worth, Texas one night. I
was with Paula record company when Elvis died. My home still has many of the mementos she kept of him
displayed. There is a plaque in her honor at the Elvis Presley Trauma Center in Memphis. It was
placed there by Elvis Fans and friends of my late wife. This would make her very happy. “

“After my career in radio and the record business had ended, I became a bureaucrat and Mary became the star
of the family. This part of my life, was her fifteen minutes in the spotlight and she made it last for many years
before her death. She was interviewed on world wide TV as a fan of “The King”. Elvis fans from around the
world would write her and call her. She always had the answer to most any question a fan could ask. She was
featured or quoted on all local media as an authoritative Elvis fan on many occasions.”

“When I got to Shreveport, Louisiana, Elvis was in the army in Germany. We did a thing on KEEL about not
forgetting Elvis and we played his records hourly. There were a few in Shreveport who accused him of ruining
the Louisiana Hayride, but most people here were and still are fans. The street where the Municipal Auditorium
is located had a name change recently. It is now known as Elvis Presley Avenue. It is true that the Hayride
peaked in popularity when Elvis was performing here and it did start declining in popularity when he left, but I
think that would have happened anyway.”

“In Shreveport, Mary enjoyed being Ms Don Logan, the wife of a KEEL DJ. After I joined the record company, I
was really quite busy traveling around the country promoting our records, so my time with Mary and the children
was limited. We moved to a two story house and enjoyed some of the finer things in life.”

“When I left the record business, I attempted to come back in radio. I did experience success with KCOZ Radio,
but they were in such debt that they had to sell the station and it changed formats. With no other work available
to me on the local scene, I went to work for the State of Louisiana and stayed there until I retired.”

“It was in this period that Mary became the “STAR” of the family. People refer to me as a “former would-famous
radio personality”, but it really was Mary who became famous the world-over as an Elvis fan. She received calls
from fans all over the world and was featured on many radio broadcasts, TV shows and films about Elvis. She
remained a loyal Elvis fan until the day she died. Still, to this day, I will sometimes answer the phone and it will
be someone calling for Mary. They read about her in a book or saw a rebroadcast of one of her interviews.”

“The last three months of her life were spent in and out of hospitals. The last week of her life, she was
hospitalized and we knew she would not be coming home. We thought we were totally prepared for her last
breath. But, when that moment came, all the family found that we were not prepared, totally or otherwise. We
lost our number one confidant and the world lost a very devoted Elvis fan. She died five days before her
birthday.”

THOUGHTS AND REMEMBRANCES OF NICK BENSON (GRANDSON OF DON LOGAN) 7-3-1980 - 1-30-2002

"Nick was my second grandchild and youngest grandson. The son of my oldest daughter, Penny Logan and Larry Benson. Nick
never lived with his mom and dad as a family unit as they divorced shortly after he was born. There have been bad feelings in the
past between the Benson’s, the Logan’s and Larry Benson’s new family, the Garcie’s and some friction still remains.”

“I first heard of Nick’s death around 5AM on Wednesday, January 30, 2002. Donnie, my oldest son, came to my residence and
advised me that something “Bad” had happened. He did not elaborate on the details, but he volunteered to take my court cases
to the Caddo Juvenile Courthouse for me, so that they could be worked when they came up on the docket that morning. My first
thought about what might have happened was that Shelley, my youngest daughter, had miscarried. Shortly after Donnie arrived,
my daughter Penny called. She told me, “Dad, Nick is dead”. She gave me no details at this time as she wanted to speak to her
sister, Shelley, who was living with her at the time and was seven months pregnant. Shelley was just waking up and Penny
wanted to give Shelley the details first before she heard about it on TV. We were not sure of how a forty year old pregnant woman
would react to the news of Nick’s death.”

“After giving Shelley the heart wrenching news, Penny called me with the details as she knew them at the time. “Nick had a
disagreement with his girlfriend. The girlfriend went out with her former boyfriend. When she and her former boyfriend returned to
the home where Nick and she were living, there was a fight in the yard and the boy stabbed him one time in the heart”. Penny told
me when she got to the hospital they told her he was dead. She told me that L.J. (Nick’s brother, my oldest grandson) was there
and that made me very happy to know she was not there alone. They were not allowed to see the body.”

“I was startled at Penny’s revelation, I asked if she was okay and that I would be available for her as my memory returned to the
day my wife died. I knew the many things that would have to be done by Penny and her ex-husband, Larry. We said “goodbye” and
expressed our love for each other. Penny chose to do as I did when her mother died. Each person in the family was given a
different project to take care of relating to the funeral and services. This time family members contacted my son, David and my
brother to advise them about the death. I called my mom. Having little projects like this seems to lighten the burden of the
moment and turn helplessness into a focused obtainable project.”

“Donnie and I talked about our fun times with Nick for a few minutes. Nick had given us many pleasurable moments in his short
21 year old life and Nick had visited many times with Donnie’s family. Donnie and his family, along with Nick and his girlfriend at
the time, April Weiss, visited my mom. It was not until Donnie had left to take my court cases to the courthouse and after I had
seen the first TV news report of Shreveport’s first homicide of 2002, that the finality of this day hit me.”

“Being a former member of the entertainment/news media, I followed the TV reports. First, they reported, “Second Degree Murder
Charges Would Be Filed”. My knowledge of the law supported this. But, as I heard the later reports of “No Charges To Be Filed”,
my former training in the reporting of news stories caused me to suspect that someone in the higher-up category was rewriting
this news story right before my eyes. I know that reporters sometime do get a few facts mixed up, but the reports were doing a
complete 360 degree turn and by the time the story aired on the noon news, I knew that there was no way possible that
professional reporters could have gotten this story so wrong.”

“Since I work for Enforcement Services at the State of Louisiana, I have worked with ADA Mary Cowles, Brian Joffrion and other
members of the staff of District Attorney Paul Carmouche in the Juvenile Court system. In this job, I dealt with a few attorneys. So,
I know it is the wise and acceptable thing to do....when there is legal trouble, you call your attorney.”

“I recognize the attorney language in the accounts of this case from both of the eyewitnesses. Even the two 911 calls seem to
have attorney language in them. In other words, they used the 911 calls to establish alibis and verify time frames. In the call from
the father of the young perpetrator of this crime, the young man is saying in the background, “he jumped on the knife”. “I never got
out of the car. He was a “big” man”. Nick Benson was five feet, ten inches tall and weighed one hundred sixty five pounds. He
indicated he did not know the man he thinks he could have stabbed, but later admitted in his interview with the police he did know
Nick, but just couldn’t remember his name.”

“Nick’s case was OFFICIALLY CLOSED as the District Attorney and Shreveport Police Department said there was no crime in
Shreveport’s first homicide of 2002. There were no charges and no arrests. My daughter kept the case open for several months
by reporting new information to the authorities, but that did not change the decision Detective Jeff Brown made when he informed
my daughter by phone on the evening of January 30, 2002 around 10:15PM, the same day Nick was killed, that he “would not be
making any charges in this case.” There were some interviews done to appease my daughter and our family. Some information
we were given was bogus and authorities used that fact to question our integrity and intention. My daughter has used up all her
resources trying to see this case through to the end. This story’s end was a fairy tale written by some unknown person with
influence and power in Shreveport, Louisiana. Justice was circumvented and the offices of the Shreveport Police Department and
the Caddo District Attorney were used to cover up a crime.”

“The Shreveport Times carried one of the most vaguely worded newspaper articles I have ever read in my lifetime about the
incident, under the byline of writer Nita Birmingham, two days later. She should win an award for using that much space to say
nothing. From reading the article, you could not really tell if someone had been killed or not. Nick’s name did appear as being
killed, but the assailant was unidentified and the knife was not mentioned.”

“Full blown grief, coupled with a feeling that somebody is doing a number on this case, struck me hard and heavy later that
Wednesday. You might say I went to pieces. Other family members notified my son, David and my brother, Larry Logan and
advised them what happened. My son and my brother made immediate plans to join us in our grief. I called my mom and she
was devastated.”

“Nick was not the perfect grandson. He had the ability to get into trouble, but he had many friends and a fun personality. One of
my last letters to my grandson said that it is wrong for a young man to get into trouble and expect his mother, father, family or
attorney to get him out of it. I tried to stress to him that he had to be responsible for his actions. In the end, Nick’s way of thinking
that someone should get you out of trouble when you got into it, proved to be more correct than mine. We tried a thing called
“TOUGH LOVE” on Nick and hoped one day he would return to the Logan family fold. He came back to us as a corpse at the hand
of a knife wielding youngster who said it was Nick who was attacking him in the early morning hours of January 30, 2002.”

“As funeral plans were being made by Penny, Larry and L.J., I remained emotionally drained as I could only think of Nick dying
alone. Did he die not knowing that I loved him? Did he know his family loved him? There were four adults inside the house when
this killing occurred and it was a killing, not an incident and none of them tried to prevent this from happening. Information was
coming to us, some here- say, some facts, but I was, and still remain, convinced that there is something wrong with the story. As
Paul Harvey would say, “We need to hear the rest of the story”.

“The crime scene was actually the property of the neighbors and not the murder scene. According to police reports Nick stumbled
to the side of the neighbor’s house. It was so bloody where he lay on the grass that it was crimson when he was moved. But,
where Shreveport Police say Nick was stabbed, there were only a few drops of blood on leaves. We don’t know whose blood, as
police did not bother to determine that and at the other side of the driveway where JN, the girlfriend and only witness stood, there
were a few more drops on blood on fallen leaves that were all photographed. In the 911 call from Nick’s girlfriend, JN only
requested medical help. When asked if the police were needed, she did not reply as, apparently, she did not view this as a crime,
whether by instruction from her attorney or in her own mind. The 911 call was broadcast on the police band and eleven units from
the Shreveport Police Department responded to 364 Bentway Circle in Ellerbe Road Estates.”

“According to the medical team reports, Nick was unresponsive when they arrived and he was transported to the hospital. The
medical team arrived while Nick’s girlfriend was still on the phone with her 911 call, so they were quick and they found an
unresponsive, cool body. The question the team posed to JN during the 911 call was how long has he been lying here? Their
question was never answered. When the lead medical technician turned Nick over to cut off his shirt, lividity was visible indicating
that HE HAD BEEN DEAD FOR ALMOST AN HOUR BEFORE the 911 call was made, and the medical team reported LIVIDITY to
Detective Brown. The police discredited Nick and made KR the victim. As I read the reports my daughter obtained through the
freedom of information law, the only rock solid truth that is guaranteed in this case is the two 911 calls and the medical reports,
everything else is designed to fit around that info and make KR the victim.”

“The wound was immense as reflected in the coroner’s report, so Nick’s death was violent. This would be the second violent
death in the Logan family. The first was when my grandfather’s brother, U.S. Deputy Marshall J.R. “Bob” Logan was gunned down
on the streets of Wister, Oklahoma. An unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, Bob Logan was a
respected citizen, a deputy under Marshall Enroe, whose legal jurisdiction fell under the “Hanging Judge” Isaac Parker of Fort
Smith, Arkansas. Bob Logan was killed on the streets of Wister, Oklahoma on March 9, 1915."

"I question my advice to my daughter when Nick was first introduced to the Juvenile Court System. Did I make a mistake? Since
KR is not guilty in Nick’s death, am I guilty? I advised that Nick should go before Judge Andrew Gallagher. Judge Gallagher’s
words of wisdom turned many youngsters around. Attorney Alex Rubenstein represented Nick’s interest, so I can only feel that
the court system gave Nick fair treatment up until the morning he died.”

“We have done all we can for Nick in the matter of justice in his death. When those in power say there is no crime, that’s the way it
is. But when this happens, the family does not have closure. The players in this case are KR, ex-boyfriend, JN, girlfriend, Nick and
someone very powerful who decided long before the 911 calls were made, that this case would not go to trial. Nick would be
turned into the perpetrator while KR would be made the victim. The Shreveport Police did an investigation, however the reports
are vague. No where in the reports does it say that KR acted in self-defense when he stuck his Mississippi Gambler Knife
manufactured by Frost Cutlery with a one inch by five inch blade that made a 1.5 by 3.0 cm stab wound in the right upper chest of
Nick Benson. The reports do not mention it, but police want us to believe that Nick, with his aorta severed and right lung
punctured from the knife’s entry, pulled up off the knife, shut the driver’s side door, walked down the drivers side of the car,
around the back of the car, then up the passenger side of the car and stumbled five feet into the neighbor’s yard, where he fell
and died.”

“My daughter has received a lot of help from dedicated individuals and it is appreciated. The employee’s of 911, the police
department employee’s who helped my daughter look up information on their computer, employees of the library system,
coroner’s office, members of the Shreveport Fire Department, Caddo Sheriff’s Office, the Shreveport Broadcast media and the
Shreveport Times records department. As a civil servant myself, these past few years, I know how it feels now to do a day to day
routine job. It gets to be routine and sometimes it gets downright boring. And I realize that our requests have not been easy to
fulfill.”

“I also appreciate our many friends who have made this ordeal bearable. Some years ago, my son, Donnie and my daughter,
Penny had their homes damaged by a tornado. Friends in his workplace collected enough money in a 30 minute period from
friends and co-workers to tide him over until he could relocate. Friends have been so very important to Penny during this time of
grief over Nick’s death. And I realize that we have probably alienated many of our friends since January 30, 2002 by our
unrelenting resolve to find answers."

In place of answers, our family has been accused of bringing hardship to others.    Jim Roberts is no longer the Chief of Police;
JN's mother and father are divorced; KR's father and mother are divorced: Detective Jeff Brown has not received any promotions;
and the story goes on.

“I have put Nick’s death behind me, but that does not mean that I do not remember and reflect on this devastating time in my life.
To not be able to live the years between 21 and my age now is a crime. There is so much to learn and wonderful things to
experience in these years and Nick never got the chance to experience this".

“I was granted a transfer to the Webster Parish Court System and worked there for the state until my retirement.”

Recollections by Dandy Don Logan ©2009 - All rights reserved - Media may use with permission on any subject dealing with
grief.
P O Box 9 - Benton, LA 71006 USA
www.dandydonlogan.com
318 965 0781 dandy71006@yahoo.com

AARP GRIEF SHARE LINK http://www.aarp.org/families/grief_loss/a2004-11-15-reactions.html