“Walker” The Old Colonel’s Manservant
Walker Hardin
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Played by Bill
“Bojangles” Robinson in Twentieth Century Fox’s 1935 movie,
“The Little Colonel,” Walker – the old Colonel’s
long-suffering body-servant who endured his peppery temper
and tirades in Annie Fellows Johnston’s “Little Colonel”
novels -- was based on a real African American man who lived
in Pewee Valley.
Though Annie
Fellows Johnston created pseudonyms for the Caucasians who
served as models for her characters (the Muirs became the
Moores, the Craigs the McIntryres, the Smiths the Tylers,
the Cochrans the Shermans, the Lawtons the Waltons), she
referred to the African Americans servants in the “Little
Colonel” stories by their actual first names.
Her inspiration
for Walker was Walker Hardin, who was born in Pewee Valley
in 1859 and lived in the area most of his life. At age 18,
he was residing in nearby Brownsboro and working as a farm
laborer with his father, also named Walker. From census
records, he appears to have been married twice: once to a
woman named Lula Oxford, the mother of his oldest son
Samuel, and then to Laura Murphy, who appears to have added
six more children to the Hardin family: Fannie, Thomas,
Oscar, Matilda, Mamie and Walker, Jr.
In 1900, the
Hardins lived near a cluster of African American families in
Pewee Valley, including the Flournoys, Taylors and John and
Rebecca Porter – “Mom Beck” in the
“Little Colonel” stories. Their home at that time was most
likely in Stumptown,
since the Klingenfuss family was listed on the previous
census page and we know their farm was off Ashwood Avenue.
Census records for 1910 list the Hardins on
Rollington Avenue near the
homes of the Foleys
and Herdts.
By 1920, they had moved to
Frazier Town, an
African American settlement that developed near Rollington
after the Civil War. Though Walker may once have worked as a
servant, his occupation at age 60 was house painter.
Sadly, Walker
Hardin didn’t live to see the famous scene of “Mr.
Bojangles” tap dancing on the stairs with Shirley Temple. He
died at age 75 on October 23, 1934 at
Central State Hospital,
where he had been a patient for several months. His
commitment to the mental institution was probably due to
dementia from general atherosclerosis, the cause of death
listed on his death certificate. He was buried in Pewee
Valley’s African American cemetery.
Unfortunately, there is no record of his grave site’s
location and Stoess Funeral Home in Crestwood, which handled
his burial, burned in 1948, losing their old records in the
fire.
Born May 5, 1908,
Walker Hardin’s youngest son and namesake stayed in Pewee
Valley and earned his living doing yard and maintenance work
for many of the town’s families, including
Mary G. Johnston,
who employed him at The Beeches
until her death in 1966. After that, he was hired by the
Utleys at Woodside,
where he worked until he retired. He was a well known and
much beloved figure in Pewee Valley. He died in Jefferson
County on February 21, 1980 at the age of 71. Like his
father, he was buried in Pewee Valley’s African American
Cemetery. His funeral service was held at the Pewee Valley
First Baptist Church
on Old Floydsburg Road.
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Rollington,
Minor Places In Old Louisville:
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The Cuckoo's Nest (Indiana),
Lee's Ranch,
Camelback Mountain &
Hole-in-Rock (Arizona),
San Antonio and
The Little Town of Bauer (Boerne),
Texas,
The Gate of the Giant Scissors (France)
Letters from Annie
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