Jesse, The Chicken Plucker...!

I reckon that not many in the entertainment field are remembered as fondly as this gentleman.

I first saw him doing a stand up piece on a television show back in the 1950s and he was funny even then! I kinda wish we had a few more like him!

Imagine, if you had to do it.

Jesse was a chicken plucker. That's right.

He stood on a line in a chicken factory and spent his days

Pulling the feathers off dead chickens so the rest of us

Wouldn't have to.

It wasn't much of a job. But at the time,

Jesse didn't think he was much of a person.

His father was a brute of a man.
His dad was actually thought to be mentally ill

And treated Jesse rough all of his life.

Jesse's older brother wasn't much better.
He was always picking on Jesse and beating him up.

Yes, Jesse grew up in a very rough home in

West Virginia.  Life was anything but easy.

And he thought life didn't hold much hope for him.
That's why he was standing in this chicken line,

Doing a job that darn few people wanted.

In addition to all the rough treatment at home, it seems

That Jesse was always sick. Sometimes it was real

physical illness, but way too often it was all in his head.

He was a small child, skinny and meek.
That sure didn't help the situation any.

When he started to school, he was the object

of every Bully on the playground.
He was a hypochondriac of the first order.
For Jesse, tomorrow was not always something

he Looked forward to.

But, he had dreams. He wanted to be a ventriloquist.

He found books on ventriloquism. He practiced with

Sock puppets and saved his hard earned dollars until

He could get a real ventriloquist dummy.

When he got old enough, he joined the military.

And even though many of his hypochondriac symptoms

Persisted, the military did recognize his talents and

Put him in the entertainment corp.
That was when his world changed.
He gained confidence.

He found that he had a talent for making people laugh,

And laugh so hard they often had tears in their eyes.
Yes, little Jesse had found himself.

You know, folks, the history books are full of people

Who overcame a handicap to go on and make a success

Of themselves, but Jesse is one of the few I know of

Who didn't overcome it.  Instead he used his paranoia

To make a million dollars, and become one of

The best-loved characters of all time in doing it!

Yes, that little paranoid hypochondriac, who transferred

His nervousness into a successful career, still holds the

Record for the most Emmy's given in a single category.

The wonderful, gifted, talented, and nervous comedian

Who brought us Barney Fife

Was 

Jesse Don Knotts.

NOW YOU KNOW, "THE REST OF THE STORY"

There is a street named for him and his statue in

Morgantown, West Virginia, his place of birth.

   Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts (July 21, 1924 – February 24, 2006)

I always thought the man was funny, but I'll admit that I had no idea of his back story! Sort of gives you a whole new respect for the man and what he accomplished, doesn't it?

Coffee out on the patio this morning. It's supposed to go back up into the 80s, so let's take advantage of it!