By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 22, 2020 — During the 12 years that I lived in Freeport, Grand Bahama, prior to moving back to Washington, D.C. as Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager at the Embassy of The Bahamas in 2013, my favourite hangout was CHANCES Lounge on Logwood Road, owned by Raymond R.H. Culmer, CEO of Jarol Investments, Ltd. and CHANCES GAMES Webshop.
Within the past month, I have been shrouded by a blanket of grief for a second time on finding out in a Facebook post by Janure Culmer that Rio Williams — another extremely close friend who was also a regular at CHANCES — has died.
Slightly more than three weeks ago, as I noted at the time, the death of Dr. Philip “Slimey” Thompson on August 28 “hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks.” Dr. Thompson and I were neighbours when we both lived at Lucayan Towers South in Freeport, and we developed an extremely close friendship as regular patrons of CHANCES, one of the most popular sports lounges in Grand Bahama, which routinely attracts some of Freeport’s most rabid sports fans throughout the week, but especially on Sundays during football season.
Janure’s post about Rio’s death had a similar debilitating effect on me emotionally as did finding out about the death of Dr. Thompson. My friendship with Rio and his brother Dashy Williams dates back to our early teenage years as students at Southern Senior School in Nassau. They both relocated from Nassau to Grand Bahama in the 1960s and were deeply involved in the progressive political movement in the country for majority rule.
I initially moved to the United States to live in 1974, but my friendships with all of my boyhood friends over years remained rock-solid. Indeed, when I initially returned to The Bahamas in 1993, after living in D.C. for 19 years, I moved to Freeport as Editor of the Freeport News, and for a year I lived with my very best friend from we were students at Southern Senior, Preston Stuart, Jr., who had established himself as one of Freeport’s leading realtors as owner of First Atlantic Realty and had accumulated tremendous wealth at a time when selling real estate was a booming business in the rapidly developing city of Freeport.
I returned to D.C. in 1994 after resigning as Editor of the Freeport News for personal reasons, but subsequently returned “permanently” in 1996 and was again appointed Editor of the Freeport News. CHANCES Lounge had not yet been constructed, and my favourite hangouts – as was the case for most of our friends – were Legends Sports Lounge and WRLX Nightclub, both of which were owned by my very best friend Preston.
Because our birthdays were only two days apart – Preston was born on March 5 and was born on March 7, 1942 – when all of our close friends were celebrating their 50th birthdays with huge birthday parties in 1992, Preston called me in Washington, D.C., and suggested that we celebrate our 50th together. Knowing how lavish the 50th birthday parties of close friends who were around our age had been, I asked Preston, “How much is this going to cost me?”
His response was, “Just purchase your ticket and come home because you can’t afford to pay half of what I have in mind.”
Preston literally renovated a night club on the canal that had been closed for several years, and I am sure that persons in Freeport who attended our 50th birthday party can very well remember it as being one of the biggest parties ever held in Freeport.
On July 20, 2006, Preston’s body was discovered in the back seat of his Cadillac DeVille sedan submerged in a canal off Queen’s Cove in Freeport, and although there has been speculation that he committed suicide, I never believed that unsubstantiated gossip. When Preston was reported missing, I was in Nassau working from an office at the Nassau Guardian, which owns the Freeport News, while receiving treatment for a medical condition.
I took the news of his death extremely hard. Preston and I saw each other on a daily basis. In fact, during most of my lunch breaks while editing the Freeport News, I would send time at Legends Sports Bar playing dominoes or cards with him and other friends. If he was worried about something, I am certain that he would have told me. That’s why I totally dismissed as utter nonsense rumors circulating at the time that he committed suicide.
The death of Rio, who was a regular patron of WRLX and Legends Sports Bar, brought back fresh memories of Preston’s death and sent me scouring through my files for the historically classic photo accompanying this article of Preston and Reo with the legendary Bahamian entertainer, the late Sonny Johnson, during an impromptu session at Legends Sports Bar. May their souls rest in peace.
