The late Clark C. “Doc” Hawley and William Christopher (W.C) Handy had their contributions to the rivers of America eternally recognized as the pair were inducted into the National Rivers Hall of Fame at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. The voting process includes a ballot sent to the River Museum membership, comprised of 12,000 members, and members of the National Rivers Hall of Fame board.
Captain Clarke C. "Doc" Hawley (1935-2022), one of the founders of the National Rivers Hall of Fame, was the first master of the excursion steamer Natchez in New Orleans. During the course of his long river career, Captain Hawley not only served as master of three of the four remaining Mississippi River System steamboats, but did much to promote river history. He served as a modern day steam boating public relations man and good will ambassador.
Captain Hawley spent his entire career working with passengers and crew on excursion and tourist steamboats. His steamboating days began on the tramping excursion boat Avalon, first as a calliopist and then as a captain. He moved to the Delta Queen, then to the excursion boat Belle of Louisville, and finally to the steamer Natchez.
Captain Hawley's generosity in sharing steamboat artifacts and knowledge with his river friends was boundless. He has hosted US presidents, government officials, royalty, entertainment and sports stars, river buffs, and countless media people. He graciously gave his time to answer historical queries and to relate some of his many legendary river tales.
Captain Hawley was co-author with Capt. Alan Bates, a National Rivers Hall of Fame Achievement Award winner, of “Moonlight at 8:30-The Excursion Boat Story.” His skill at the calliope keyboard earned him the title “Pied Piper of the French Quarter,” and is among the memories most hold dear of him.
It has been said that the real mark of a riverman is the number of people he has trained to carry on his work. During his lifetime, Captain Hawley has trained over 20 people who now hold captain's licenses on the rivers and continue to carry on the steamboat tradition.
William Christopher (W.C.) Handy (1873-1958) was born in Florence, Alabama to former slaves on November 16, 1873. His father was a preacher, and while W.C. took to music as a child, his father discouraged it. W.C. used money he earned from making soap and picking nuts and berries to buy a guitar, but “his father made him return it for a refund and buy a dictionary,” said David Guion. Despite his father’s objections, Handy became a musician.
In 1903, Handy went to conduct a band in Clarksdale, Mississippi, called the Knights of Pythias. That year, while waiting for a train at the Tutwiler depot, about 16 miles southeast of Clarksdale, Handy witnessed an African American man playing a guitar and using a knife for his slide. “His face,” Handy wrote, in his 1941 autobiography, “had on it the sadness of the ages...." He called it “the weirdest music [he] had ever heard.”
As the Knights of Pythias played throughout the Delta, Handy kept hearing the blues and added to the band’s music.
W. C. Handy got his start to fame on the Kate Adams. The Captain needed a band to entertain the young crowd aboard from Memphis to Arkansas City at reduced rates. The “youngsters” wanted music and without it, excursions were losing money. Handy started playing for $5 and room and board per trip with his six band members. They played from breakfast through dinner, all the way up until 1 A.M. The band was a crowd pleaser and soon enough, the Kate Adams was carrying capacity crowds each trip.
Handy made the Blues popular through “sheet music and the vaudeville stage prior to the era of blues recordings from 1920.” A composer, trumpet player, and music producer, Handy played a pivotal role in promoting the blues. His Memphis Blues, published in 1912, was “a game-changer” according to Gordon. And Robin Banerji, of the BBC, declares that the Memphis Blues “would take the US by storm ...” and “launched the blues as a mass entertainment genre that would transform popular music worldwide.”
Handy would go on to play on other riverboats. At one time he was playing eight trips a week on the Pattona, and later published the “Pattona Rag” in 1913. In 1914, Handy published the St. Louis Blues, his most popular song, and in 1916, he wrote the Beale Street Blues, elevating the street’s popularity.
Hawley and Handy become a part of nearly 100 National Rivers Hall of Fame inductees, and their achievements tell the rich history of America’s rivers and the profound impact of our waterways. To learn more about the other inductees and the National Rivers Hall of Fame, visit rivermuseum.org/nrhf-inductees.