Richard Lewis Sr. hooted “Hello, Agnes!” while slamming down a winning hand of cards on the dinner table of his Beverly home — or just about any time he’d come out on top.
His six kids have no idea where it came from. Why Google it? That’s Dad. That’s enough, they said.
His family imagines Mr. Lewis adopted the phrase while overcoming tough circumstances as a boy in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era and later while serving as a B-52 bomber mechanic in the Air Force.
“He would say, ‘If you’re going to do anything, play to win, like your life depends on it,’” said his daughter, Wanda Lewis-Fullmer.
“He grew up in hard times and was driven to ensure his family didn’t live the same way,” said Lewis-Fullmer, a gospel singer and business owner who lives in Kankakee. “He drove us to work hard and pushed competition to be the best in class, in business, in sports. And he was there at every game, concert and graduation.”
After 12 years in the military, Mr. Lewis attended Chicago State University and became a technician for AT&T.
He raised his family on the South Side in the Beverly neighborhood, where he lived for about five decades.
Mr. Lewis died Aug. 15 from Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 88.
He met his future wife, Emma Lee Edwards, while stationed at a military base in Nebraska.
He charmed her on the dance floor as they listened to “I Found My Thrill on Blueberry Hill” by Fats Domino. They married on April 20, 1959, and remained together until she died in 2017.
She also was raised in the rural South and became a successful Tupperware saleswoman. Her sales won her the use of company cars as well as cruise vacations, furniture, luggage, stereo systems and a stay at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. Visits to Tupperware headquarters in Orlando also meant side trips for her family to nearby fun spots such as Disney World, Gatorland, Circus World, Cypress Gardens and the Kennedy Space Center.
Mr. Lewis told his kids they were “gallant” and “all special in different ways,” and he encouraged them to “walk to the beat of their own drummer” — advice reinforced by Mr. Lewis’ affinity for carefree dancing around the house while listening to James Brown and Johnny Mathis tunes.
His son Ronald F. Lewis graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and retired from the Army as a general. Another son, Richard Lewis, is a retired Army air traffic controller who lives in Denver. Daughter Jacqueline Lewis attended Princeton University and lives in New York, where she’s an author and pastor. Son Rodney Lewis is an attorney who lives in Hinsdale. His son Roderick Lewis is a playwright and Chicago Public Schools teacher.
Lewis-Fullmer recalled visiting her dad in recent years to play Spades — always armed with a pizza from Palermo’s, a bottle of dark Puerto Rican rum and some Coca-Cola.
“We’d play Spades for seven hours straight. It was like a full-time job. And we’d chat about world affairs, segregation, global warming. He’d talked about Edgar Allan Poe. He just read a lot. He’d quote Shakespeare and things in Latin. His favorite was ‘Ad Astra per Aspera’ — which means ‘To the stars through tough times,’” she said.
Mr. Lewis found love again late in life and was engaged to Mattie Grayson at the time of his death.
“He was working hard until the end, worrying about his grass getting mowed and the sidewalk shoveled,” his son Roderick said with a laugh.
In addition to his six children, Mr. Lewis is survived by four grandchildren.
