Mississippi State graduate recalling life with Stennis in one-man play (Commercial Dispatch)

The Commercial Dispatch, August 31, 2000

STARKVILLE - Not many people can say they lived with a political giant, but Mississippi Delta native David Dallas can take that boast.

In 1988, when U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis retired from politics at nearly the age of 90, Dallas, then a Mississippi State University graduate student, was chosen as a personal Stennis aide.

From the rich, two-year experience of living with Stennis at his university residence, Dallas has written and now performs "A Gentleman from Mississippi: One Man Salutes Senator John C. Stennis."

In the play, Dallas plays three characters: himself, an aging Stennis and Stennis at the height of his political power, when he chaired the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations Committees and exercised vast influence over the nation's military.

Stennis was a 1923 graduate of Mississippi A&M College, which later became Mississippi State University.

Stennis, a former east Mississippi circuit judge, entered the Senate in 1947. He never lost an election in four decades and had a reputation for integrity and fairness.

He was referred to by his colleagues as "the conscience of the Senate." The John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State and John C. Stennis Space Center were named for him.

Recently, Dallas performed a play at M.S.U. and, on Tuesday, held an informal discussion with the University Honors Forum about becoming an actor.

"It's tough to write about something you have a feeling for," Dallas said. (The play) shows you -- and it doesn't tell -- how much we need to respect older people and those people who contributed so much to our lives. We have roads now in Mississippi because of Sen. Stennis and other things that we take for granted."

Trying to capture a total sense of Stennis, who died in April 1995, Dallas discussed with the honors members some of his memories that he captured in the play.

He loved meeting with students" during his time at M.S.U., Dallas said.

He recalled Stennis waking him up at 3 a.m. to help prepare him for speaking engagement that was in the afternoon.

Stennis sometimes spoke to classes up to times a week.

He rarely said anything bad about anyone," Dallas said. " He only said bad things about three people, and I will only mention one -- Spiro Agnew.

One story that Dallas does like to tell at other speaking engagements is not mentioned in the play.

"Sen. Stennis' best friend growing up in DeKalb was a black boy," Dallas said. "He would cry because this boy could not go to school with him."

Years later, Dallas said when Stennis would travel to Kemper County, he would visit his old friend.

He remembered Stennis saying, "That boy was just as smart as me, but he didn't have the opportunities I did."

Some of the material for the play came from Dallas' journal entries.

"I kept a journal most of the time," he said. "I would write down the stories he told."

He said he sought inspiration while writing the play from Southern writers such as Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor.

"People who knew him like reconnecting with him," Dallas said. "Everybody has a different story. When I started writing, I didn't contact family members for various reasons.

He added some of Stennis' nieces and nephews have seen the play and spoke highly of it to him but that his children have not.

Dallas' acting career began long before writing "A Gentleman."

Dallas, a former Cleveland resident, went to Los Angeles and said it was one of the scariest moments in his life.

"There were so many talented people out there that couldn't find work," Dallas said.

He also realized that he would have to learn to take rejections.

“Not everything you do is going to be like, by everyone," Dallas said. "That was hard for me. I liked to be liked."

He overcame his fears and began learning to deal with an audience by taking on stand-up comedy. "One of my favorite clubs in Philadelphia, Pa., was called Champagnes,'" Dallas said. "It was an all-black club. It taught me to not be afraid and to get up there and tell them about myself. Some nights I would do horrible, and sometimes I would do well."

Dallas has also written another play, "Barking Dogs," in which he played "11 zany characters with one serious character." The serious character was a young boy who had watched his father take part in the murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County.

"I convinced the crowd," Dallas said. "I was told it was an honest moment."

"A Gentleman" will have a three-day special preview in New York City on Sept. 18-20 at The Century Theatre, which is an off-Broadway house.

There are plans to bring the show back to Philadelphia, Pa., for a four-week run in October and November and then an off-Broadway run in spring 2001. Discussions are being held for taking the show to Washington, D.C., Chicago, Minneapolis, the U.S.S. John C. Stennis nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and Los Angeles.