Remembering Danny Hensley

Danny Hensley was presiding commissioner the entire time I was at the Carthage Press, but I don't recall ever writing about the County Commission during those nine years.

Danny, along with Carthage artists like Lowell Davis, Bob Tommey and Bill Snow, launched the Midwest Gathering of the Artists, which was a big deal in Carthage for a long time, but I wasn't the one who covered that event either. Nancy Prater did it during my first couple of years at the Press and Ron Graber had the assignment the rest of the time.

That being said, I ran into Danny plenty of times over the years. One year in the early '90s, in one of my frequent bouts of whimsy, I drove down Garrison Avenue with a tape recorder during the primary season and called out the names on the campaign signs along the street. Danny had more signs posted than any candidate for any office.

The next day, I reported that Danny Hensley won the Garrison Avenue Poll and praised his "sign language."

After that, nearly every time he saw me Danny asked how he was doing in the Garrison Avenue poll.

Prior to his death, Danny had been out of the public eye for the past several years, but before that, I always enjoyed talking to him at what was then called the Lincoln Ladies Ice Cream Social at Memorial Hall in Carthage.

I invariably found him holding court and proving he was the only man in Jasper County who could pull off wearing an American flag shirt.

Danny Hensley spent 18 years on the Jasper County Commission, serving as presiding commissioner during most of that time.

I would be stretching it if I said everyone approved of every decision the commissioners made during those years,even though the condition the roads were in was an indication he was doing something right, but even the people who disagreed with him couldn't help but like him.

With that big smile and the knack for being agreeable even when he totally diagreed with someone. Danny Hensley brought joy to politics.

It's a shame others don't try that approach.