Roy Wilder Jr., former newspaperman and colorful political operative who died the other day at 97, once told me his three keys to longevity: Read The N&O each morning; drink a double martini each afternoon; and, weather permitting, go outdoors two or three times a day to smoke a pipe.
It worked for him. I crossed paths with Wilder in the late 1990s when I was working on a book on Terry Sanford's 1960 campaign for governor. Wilder worked for Sanford. I visited him once at his log cabin in Spring Hope in Nash County and we stayed in touch over the years. In 2009, he told me, "There's one son of a gun I want to outlive," although he didn't say "gun." But he wouldn't tell me who it was. I thought it might be his old political nemesis from that '60 campaign, Big John Burney of Wilmington, a lawyer who worked for candidate I. Beverly Lake. But Wilder said it wasn't Burney, who died in 2010. Click here to read my 2010 column on Wilder and Burney.
Wilder, who was friends with the great New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell, loved the language. His book, "You All Spoken Here," is a highly entertaining collection of expressions used in the South.
Wilder called me about 10 days ago, still a loyal N&O reader at 97. He confirmed that he had outlived his nemesis but still wouldn't tell me who it was. I'll never know. But I know this: Roy Wilder was a lot of fun. --John Drescher
