South Austin stalwart Micky Caldwell celebrates 105th birthday with relatives, friends
In his honor, relatives, friends and four Austin firefighters gathered on his driveway for a birthday party on March 29.
"Yes, he's healthy," confirmed one of his daughters, Sharon Howell. "Some trouble with his eyesight, but he hasn't lost his sense of humor."
In fact, as Caldwell greeted visitors on his driveway, he shook hands with the men, but he valiantly kissed the hands of the women.
A smiling cavalier into his 11th decade, Caldwell served as the subject of a major American-Statesman profile when he turned 101.
Back then, Caldwell gave a Statesman reporter and a photographer a tour of his youthful haunts, which included the former Grace Methodist Church on East Monroe Street, which his father, Thomas Fletcher Caldwell Sr., helped build in 1914; several shops on South Congress that the Caldwell family had occupied with various businesses; apartments above what is now Kendra Scott's Texas-themed Yellow Rose Collection that Caldwell built by hand from material salvaged from World War II-era Camp Swift; and a tiny house on Newtown Street that Caldwell enhanced with a basement, unusual for Austin.
More on Micky Caldwell: We take a unique South Austin history tour with 101-year-old Micky Caldwell
"Few people have lived so much South Austin history as Malcolm 'Micky' Caldwell, 101," began the Nov. 12, 2021 article. "The descendent of early Texas pioneers, Caldwell has spent almost his entire life within a few square miles south of the river."
The perennial charitable volunteer shared a pretty simple philosophy that has informed his long years and could be witnessed at his driveway birthday party.
"Nothing is worthwhile till it's shared," the centenarian said. "You can have a bank account, but it doesn't mean anything until you use it. Service is the rent you pay for the space you occupy in the community."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Relatives, friends celebrate Micky Caldwell's 105th birthday in Austin
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
a minute ago
- Boston Globe
Amid a culture of fear, a celebrated artist's most important exhibition is pulled from Smithsonian
And it appears that Sherald's 'Trans Forming Liberty,' her 2024 portrait of a transgender woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty, rattled museum leadership in a climate of deep hostility from the administration toward transgender people. Advertisement Installation view of Amy Sherald: American Sublime (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 9-August 10, 2025). Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018. (Tiffany Sage/ Tiffany Sage/ Sherald said the Portrait Gallery had proposed replacing the painting in D.C. with a video of viewers' reactions both to it and transgender issues more broadly. In a the museum countered, saying it wanted the video to accompany, not replace, the painting. Either way, no agreement could be struck, and Sherald withdrew. Advertisement 'The video would have opened up for debate the value of trans visibility and I was opposed to that being a part of the 'American Sublime' narrative,' Sherald told the New York Times. 'Unfortunately, we could not come to an agreement with the artist. We remain appreciative and inspired by Ms. Sherald, her artwork and commitment to portraiture,' the museum But even without 'Trans Forming Liberty,' it's a fair guess the show would have been under external pressures: Sherald's paintings are for the most part elegant, precise portraits of unnamed Black subjects painted life-sized. There are two exceptions in the exhibition. The first is her portrait of Breonna Taylor, a memorial image painted with dignified beauty of the innocent Black woman but weary grace. It was the exhibition's centerpiece, an emblem of the artist's larger project to build Black life into a canon of American art long indifferent to its inclusion. Artist Amy Sherald with her portrait of the late Breonna Taylor. Joseph Hyde/Vanity Fair Either one might easily raise the ire of the current administration. We don't have to look very long, or very far, to parse the current president's view of Obama's husband. On his Truth Social website this week, the 47th president posted a shockingly raw AI-generated video of former President Barack Obama being violently arrested in the Oval Office and dragged away in handcuffs. But there's more here than a simple obsessive animus, one president to another (though it's also clearly that). Advertisement The current administration's blunt enforcement of what it deems acceptable expression now touches virtually all aspects of American life. That includes media (as in the 60 Minutes lawsuit debacle), entertainment (the cancellation of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,' a known Trump tormentor), and higher education (see the administration's roughshod bullying of Harvard and Columbia over its specious claims of antisemitism). A favorite target of the Trump administration, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts by government, private business, and educational institutions, looms over Sherald's withdrawal, too. The most recent addition to the constellation of Smithsonians, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, was one of the second Trump administration's prime targets. In a March executive order titled ' (It also singled out the Smithsonian's Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum.) In May, when Advertisement Here in Massachusetts, the National Endowment for the Arts in May refused to disburse funds already promised to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for 'Power Full Because We're Different,' Which brings us back to Sherald, ensnared by the strident decree of a cultural bureaucracy in deep regressive mode. To be clear: This was her decision. She chose not to compromise her integrity and intentions, which have been consistent and clear from the start. She had been making portraits of Black subjects for years when the invitation to paint Michelle Obama arrived. It is completely in tune with her core sensibility to capture her subjects simply, truthfully, as they are. Ruth Erickson from Cambridge with Jullian Kalim, 8, and his brother Cassidy Kalim, 3, looked at portraits of the Obamas at the MFA Boston in 2022. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff But the Obama portrait arrived in 2018 less as a painting than a heavy symbol amid a violent lurch in American life: From a two-term president who became a beacon of Black achievement to a political outsider openly hostile to the progress his predecessor seemed to embody. When the painting went on national tour in 2022, along with Kehinde Wiley's portrait of the former president, it drew crowds, including Advertisement But is pulling back, in this moment, this place, defiance or acquiescence? That's a larger question that artists, thinkers, and institutions are grappling with in every corner and context. Either way, it's an outcome enjoyed primarily by just one person, and we know who that is. Murray Whyte can be reached at
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Watch: Scott Adkins dominates underground fights in 'Prisoner of War'
1 of 5 | James Wright's (Scott Adkins) war isn't over in "Prisoner of War," in theaters and VOD Sept. 19. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA July 25 (UPI) -- Well Go USA released the trailer for Prisoner of War on Friday. The film opens in theaters and video-on-demand Sept. 19. Scott Adkins plays James Wright, a British SAS officer shot down during World War II. Captured and put in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in the Philippines, Wright is enlisted in the camp's brutal no holds barred fights. As Wright, Adkins displays his formidable martial arts skills to the chagrin of the Japanese Lt. Col. Ito (Peter Shinkoda). Louis Mandylor directed Prisoner of War. As an actor, Mandylor co-starred with Adkins in the Debt Collector movies. Adkins also shares writing credit with Mark Clebanoff. Michael Chapon and Masanori Mimoto also star. Prisoner of War will screen at the Big Bad Film Festival in August ahead of its release.
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Singer Cleo Laine, regarded by many as Britain's greatest jazz voice, dies at 97
LONDON — Cleo Laine, whose husky contralto was one of the most distinctive voices in jazz and who was regarded by many as Britain's greatest contribution to the quintessentially American music, has died. She was 97. The Stables, a charity and venue Laine founded with her late jazz musician husband John Dankworth, said Friday that it was 'greatly saddened' by the news that 'one of its founders and Life President, Dame Cleo Laine has passed away.' Monica Ferguson, artistic director of the Stables, said Laine 'will be greatly missed, but her unique talent will always be remembered.' Laine's career spanned the Atlantic Ocean and crossed genres: She sang the songs of Kurt Weill, Arnold Schoenberg and Robert Schumann; she acted on stage and on film, and even played God in a production of Benjamin Britten's opera 'Noye's Fludde.' Laine's life and art were intimately bound up with band leader Dankworth, who gave her a job and her stage name in 1951 and married her seven years later. Both were still performing after their 80th birthdays. Dankworth died in 2010 at 82. In 1997, Laine became the first British jazz artist to be made a dame, the female equivalent of a knight. 'It is British jazz that should have received the accolade for its service to me,' she said when the honor was announced. 'It has given me a wonderful life, a successful career and an opportunity to travel the globe doing what I love to do.' Laine was born Clementina Dinah Campbell in 1927. Her father, Alexander Campbell, was a Jamaican who loved opera and earned money during the Great Depression as a street singer. Despite hard times, her British mother, Minnie, made sure that her daughter had piano, voice and dance lessons. She began performing at local events at age 3, and at age 12 she got a role as an extra in the 1940 movie 'The Thief of Bagdad.' Leaving school at 14, Laine went to work as a hairdresser and faced repeated rejection in her efforts to get a job as a singer. A decade later, in 1951, she tried out for the Johnny Dankworth Seven, and succeeded. 'Clementina Campbell' was judged too long for a marquee, so she became Cleo Laine. 'John said that when he heard me, I didn't sound like anyone else who was singing at the time,' Laine once said. 'I guess the reason I didn't get the other jobs is that they were looking for a singer who did sound like somebody else.' Laine had a remarkable range, from tenor to contralto, and a sound often described as 'smoky.' Dankworth, in an interview with the Irish Independent, recalled Laine's audition. 'They were all sitting there with stony faces, so I asked the Scottish trumpet player Jimmy Deuchar, who was looking very glum and was the hardest nut of all, whether he thought she had something. 'Something?' he said, 'She's got everything!'' Offered 6 pounds a week, Laine demanded — and got — 7 pounds. 'They used to call me 'Scruff', although I don't think I was scruffy. It was just that having come from the sticks, I didn't know how to put things together as well as the other singers of the day,' she told the Irish Independent. 'And anyway, I didn't have the money, because they weren't paying me enough.' Recognition came swiftly. Laine was runner-up in Melody Maker's 'girl singer' category in 1952 and topped the list in 1956 and 1957. She married Dankworth — and quit his band — in 1958, a year after her divorce from her first husband, George Langridge. As Dankworth's band prospered, Laine began to feel underused. 'I thought, no, I'm not going to just sit on the band and be a singer of songs every now and again when he fancied it. So it was then that I decided I wasn't going to stay with the band and I was going to go off and try to do something solo-wise,' she said in a BBC documentary. 'When I said I was leaving, he said, 'Will you marry me?' That was a good ploy, wasn't it, huh?' They were married on March 18, 1958. A son, Alec, was born in 1960, and daughter Jacqueline followed in 1963. Despite her happy marriage, Laine forged a career independent of Dankworth. 'Whenever anybody starts putting a label on me, I say, 'Oh, no you don't,' and I go and do something different,' Laine told the Associated Press in 1985 when she was appearing on stage in New York in 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood.' Her stage career began in 1958 when she was invited to join the cast of a West Indian play, 'Flesh to a Tiger,' at the Royal Court Theatre, and was surprised to find herself in the lead role. She won a Moscow Arts Theatre Award for her performance. 'Valmouth' followed in 1959, 'The Seven Deadly Sins' in 1961, 'The Trojan Women' in 1966 and 'Hedda Gabler' in 1970. The role of Julie in Jerome Kern's 'Show Boat' in 1971 provided Laine with a show-stopping song, 'Bill.' Laine began winning a following in the United States in 1972 with a concert at the Alice Tully Hall in New York. It wasn't well-attended, but the New York Times gave her a glowing review. The following year, she and Dankworth drew a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall, launching a series of popular appearances. 'Cleo at Carnegie' won a Grammy Award in 1986, the same year she was a Tony nominee for 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood.' A reviewer for Variety in 2002 found her voice going strong: 'a dark, creamy voice, remarkable range and control from bottomless contralto to a sweet clear soprano. Her perfect pitch and phrasing is always framed with musical imagination and good taste.' Perhaps Laine's most difficult performance of all was on Feb. 6, 2010, at a concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the concert venue she and Dankworth had founded at their home, during which Laine and both of her children performed. 'I'm terribly sorry that Sir John can't be here today,' Laine told the crowd at the end of the show. 'But earlier on my husband died in hospital.' Laine said in an interview with the Boston Globe in 2003 that the secret of her longevity was that 'I was never a complete belter.' 'There was always a protective side in me, and an inner voice always said, 'Don't do that — it's not good for you and your voice.'' Laine is survived by her son and daughter. Associated Press journalist Robert Barr, the principal writer of the obituary, died in 2018. AP writer Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
