Poplar Bluff says good-bye to a true Mule

“I’m the true Mule,” laughed Wesley Lewis. “I’m a Mule through and through, and I think if you cut me open, my blood would run maroon!”

On a June day last summer, Lewis spoke freely and enthusiastically about what fuels his devotion to his hometown and his alma mater.

“I am proud of my school and where I came from,” Lewis asserted. “I want the students to feel that same sense of belonging and pride.”

Wesley Lewis, who died Oct. 19, is being remembered as a “true Mule,” for his dedication to students, Poplar Bluff schools, and Mule history.Photo provided

Lewis graduated from Poplar Bluff High School in 1979.

He began working for the district in 1989 in maintenance and as a bus driver.

He eventually became involved in security, and at the time of his passing Oct. 19, was head of security for Poplar Bluff schools.

A special tribute will be held at 6:45 p.m. Friday, at the Poplar Bluff High School football stadium, prior to kickoff of the Mules home game. Players will also wear stickers on their helmets that read, “True Mule,” in remembrance.

Services are scheduled to be held Saturday, with visitation at 11 a.m. and service at 1 p.m. in the Poplar Bluff High School gymnasium.

“I think part of the problem with school spirit today is that students don’t feel invested in their school,” Lewis observed in June. “Many students don’t look beyond today. What I want to do through my tribute walls, is to show students that where they are today is not where they are going.

“I want them to be proud of the heritage that came before them and inspire them to reach beyond the boundaries of this school. I want kids to walk up to those walls and say, ‘Wow!’”

Lewis revealed that when the new school opened in the fall of 2016, all the memorabilia was stored away. He said he approached the administration about displaying those items, and also about his idea to make the tribute walls expand beyond sports.

“I wanted the kids to find encouragement and inspiration in whatever areas of their life they found their strength,” Lewis explained. “We’ll have a pro-wall for those graduates who went on to play professional sports, but there will also be walls featuring the class valedictorians and various award winners, as well as high school athletic standouts. I hope to also be able to highlight those from PBHS who have succeeded in various professional capacities.”

Lewis admitted the process was a slow-paced labor of love.

“I research facts and talk to people — I want all information to be accurate — that’s why I’m so slow,” he said proudly. “When the students look at those displays, I want them to read the history that goes with them.

“If they don’t know the history, how can they take pride in those accomplishments, or feel connected to them?”

Lewis’s deep concern for students extended beyond sharing history and factual information. As head of campus security, he often dealt with students in conflict. Lewis readily admitted he could relate to those students because of his own troubled days in high school.

“I was getting kind of wild back in high school,” Lewis said candidly. “I was running around and making some bad decisions that could have completely altered the path my life took. I credit Mr. Daniels with changing my direction.”

Mr. Jim Daniels was the high school principal at that time.

“Mr. Daniels saw something in me that others didn’t,” Lewis recalled with a smile. “He called me into his office and he told me I was smart, and that I could really do something with my life; however, he also said if I didn’t change my ways, I was headed down a dead-end road.

“Those words had such an impact on me, because I knew he truly cared. That is what I try to do with my job here — I want to pay Mr. Daniels' words forward and try to help these kids who just need some direction.”

Lewis made it a point to be in daily contact with students.

“I get out and walk the halls,” Lewis explained. “I speak to the students and I keep my eyes and ears open and pay attention to what’s going on. Often, I have been able to diffuse tense situations before they escalate just because I was alert as I mingled through the crowd.”

Lewis said when student actions required that he engage one-on-one with students, he tried to put the student at ease by finding common ground.

“I ask them if they are related to so-and-so, or ask if they know people I know,” Lewis pointed out. “Then I ask them to help me resolve the situation. I let them know we all make mistakes, and sometimes even share from my own experience.”

“It’s all about trust,” he went on to say, “and I feel like the students trust me.”

After 30 years with the Poplar Bluff schools, Lewis had planned to retire at the end of the 2020 school year.

Following his graduation from high school, Lewis attended Southeast Missouri State University, where he studied industrial technology and art.

On July 19, 1986, he married his beloved Jacqueline.

“I always knew Jacqueline, but on Oct. 24, 1980, at 7 p.m., I realized I really wanted to get to know her,” he laughingly recalled. “I was 19 and she was 16. I was with a buddy and she came walking down the street.

“I said, ‘Who’s that good-looking girl?’ She gave me the cold shoulder for about a week, but my smooth dance moves eventually won her over.”

The loss of Wesley Lewis is felt throughout the Poplar Bluff community.

“The class of 1979 is heartbroken to lose our amazing friend,” observes classmate Terena Whitworth. “He was an important mentor to so many kids in our school district, and was one of the best men on earth.”

Athletic Director Kent Keith said, “Our True Mule Wesley Lewis had more love for this city, school district and our students than just about anyone I know.”

Jo Nell Seifert, who was not only a PBHS co-worker and friend, but also had been one of Lewis’s high school teachers, remembers she never heard anyone say anything negative about Lewis.

“From administrators to students,” Seifert recalls, “when people spoke of Wesley, it was always with respect and affection. Everyone liked Wesley. His smiling face will most certainly be missed.”

Dr. Scott Dill, superintendent of Poplar Bluff schools, shared his heartfelt observations about Lewis.

“Mr. Lewis was a unique man who occupied a unique place in the Poplar Bluff School District,” he said. “As we have discovered this week, there were very few aspects involved in the daily operation of the high school in which Mr. Lewis did not have a hand — most telling of all was when we began working with the funeral director for the unusual circumstance of having a ceremony at school.”

“That is not something that has been done historically,” Dill said. “We realized right away that the person we would have called upon to ensure that all minute details were addressed was none other than Mr. Wesley Lewis.

Dr. Dill went on to say, “The last time I spoke with my friend Mr. Lewis, we talked of two things he loved dearly: family and food. We spoke of his visiting sister, we spoke of the days ahead, and of a much-anticipated vacation, he was planning. We talked of his lovely wife and his departed mother.

“The conversation about his mother led us into the topic of roast duck, a dish for which Mr. Lewis and I shared a mutual affinity. We spoke of his mother’s method for preparing duck, which was one with which I was not familiar and have not yet been afforded the opportunity to try. As we parted, we shook hands and said our farewells, neither of us knowing it was for the final time.

“Mr. Lewis was my friend, as he was a friend to generations of students in Poplar Bluff. 

“He was a true Mule.”