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22/01/2023 2:13 pm
From NOLA.COM
Popular riverboat captain Clarke Campbell 'Doc' Hawley, known for his boisterous calliope playing, was memorialized during a ceremony on the Natchez as the paddlewheeler steamed on the Mississippi River Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. Hawley died in November, 2022 at the age of 87.
Hawley was remembered Saturday as a kind and respected soul who loved people, enjoyed learning and using polysyllabic words for the amusement of himself and others, and had an encyclopedic knowledge of steamboats, the rivers on which he worked and New Orleans.
The memorial featured song, scripture and poetry readings, remembrances of Hawley, and the disposition of ashes into the Mississippi River and the laying of a wreath on the water. Debbie Fagnano played 'The Bells of St. Mary's,' and 'When the Saints Go Marching In,' on the calliope after the sounding of taps.