Richmond Lewis Scott Poindexter Jr. was a Leflore County native and staunch Mississippi State University Bulldog who made his mark in Sunflower County as an Inverness resident. He turned the heart of an Ole Miss Rebel, Sis, and they parented a family of four girls and one boy until his youngest brother, Robert Van Poindexter, came to live with them when his parents tragically passed away. Draughon, Elyette, Lewis, Mary Howard and Warner are the children of Scott and Sis.
The mold of Mr. Scott hasn’t been broken just yet. When I was a kid, he was Lewis’ dad and was always called Mr. Poindexter. He was a farmer, and later an entrepreneur and businessman, with a big house, big stories and always a big smile. As a child there wasn’t much interaction between us other than seeing him at church in the same pew on the left side near the back, or at a football game, or in passing at a local store or restaurant. But later in my life, I would be calling Mr. Poindexter to gather stories. One of the first was hearing tales of “Old Main,” the Mississippi State dormitory where legends and tales are actually the truth. The stories are so wild and woolly, they seem made up, but none venture from the truth.
The dorm was the gathering place for freshmen — a squared-off building with a courtyard where the spontaneity and hijinks wandered inside and outside and through each room and hallway. His room, #601, was a Starkville juke joint pretty much. A record player that never stopped, poker and Booray card games that were never-ending, and sleep, well, that was a commodity taken in small amounts. He lived there a year, 1956-57, and was still an underclassman when it caught fire and burned down.
“We were amazed that it actually burned down. We saw people set fires to the floor and it would burn through but the whole thing never caught fire. It was the most unusual place to live,” he told me back in 2009. “We painted a sign on our door, a triangle with Delta Hardrollers on it. This is without exaggeration. There was a card game in our room 24 hours a day. The lights never went off, Bruce played cards, and I never did. We’d go to bed and there’d be people in our room. We’d wake up and there’d be different people in our room. There were so many people wanting to get into our room that most of them couldn’t get in. Our third roommate never showed up, so we had a cot that was like a couch where folks sat. We would send out to the grill that stayed open till 10 p.m. and send somebody over there to pick up the order.”
The duo were so popular that if there was ever a falling out or argument between others, they’d be banned from Delta Hardrollers’ juke joint for up to two weeks. And trouble and hijinks weren’t ever far away from room 601. He once led a team of pranksters who set up some freshmen who went home every weekend. After drilling a hole through the one-foot concrete wall in the adjacent room, they fed a garden hose through and mischievously filled a jar secured under a bed with some “bodily fluids.”
“One morning, they all piled out in the hall, saying, ‘Lord, have mercy, that’s the stinkiest thing we’ve ever smelled.’ And we told them they needed to clean their room. It was a fun place to live and I wouldn’t take anything for having lived there.”
Mr. Poindexter stayed in the dorm three semesters and then married Sis and said that his grades went from “probation to the President’s List” as did his life as he matriculated, graduated, came home and began his family and career that touched thousands. Watching his funeral, the stories of his prayer list came up several times. A list long and intricate that took an hour to go through — and he and Sis went through it at least twice a day.
The Delta Hardroller made his mark on Old Main and made his mark across the Delta and beyond, following Jesus, telling stories and chasing just enough trouble to keep it all interesting and fun.
They haven’t broken the mold but Richmond Lewis Scott Poindexter Jr. is a tough act to follow with big shoes to fill. We all miss you, Mr. Poindexter. Thank you for being you and including us all in your journey of life.
