Ken de la Bastide
The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Ind.
(MCT)
Apr. 1—ANDERSON — Longtime community leader and former school teacher Primus Mootry died in a house fire Thursday.
Mootry, 78, 2407 Caramore Circle, was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Anderson firefighters got a call about a house fire about 5:30 p.m., said Fire Chief Dave Cravens. Upon arrival, they found the house was filled with smoke.
Cravens said the fire was confined to the middle of the home.
“After we knocked the fire down, a woman (Carolyn Mootry) said her husband was in the bedroom,” Cravens said.
Mootry was transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
麦迪逊县验尸官特洛伊Abbott博士说卡罗尔n Mootry got their pets out of the house and called for her husband, who didn’t respond.
Abbott said Carolyn Mootry lost all her possessions and was spending the night with a friend.
Mootry has written a weekly column in The Herald Bulletin for many years and had retired from teaching in Anderson Community Schools.
“We’re all shocked and saddened by Primus’ death,” said Scott Underwood, editor of The Herald Bulletin.
“His voice was so important to our newspaper and our community. He was a gentleman and a person of great intellect and great integrity. Primus always had the courage to speak the truth — and the tact to get others to pay attention.”
Anderson’s Black leaders were shocked and dismayed at the news of Mootry’s death, saying it is an enormous loss to the entire community.
Kim Townsend, executive director of the Anderson Housing Authority, said she met Mootry in the late 1990s when he became executive director of the Wilson Boys and Girls Club.
“This is heartbreaking,” she said, tearfully, Thursday night. “That is so devastating.”
汤森和关注居民Lindsay Brown described Mootry as an intellectual titan who had at heart the interests of everyone in the community, regardless of background.
“I have a lot of respect for him. He was a champion of civil rights. He wanted to see people succeed,” Townsend said.
“For me, what I see is he had a lot of wisdom, a lot of knowledge. In his columns, he took on a lot of different issues. I think he just spoke from is heart.”
Almost never at a loss for words, Brown could barely keep his composure in the moments after hearing the news while on a Zoom meeting with several other community leaders.
“This just got me all shook up,” he said as he recalled a conversation he had with Mootry only a couple of weeks ago.
“He was a voice of all the people. And it wasn’t just for one side. He spoke for everybody,” he said.
“This is a huge hit for the community as a whole, not just the Black community. We are losing a strong voice, a voice for the people. His articles were straightforward and never sugarcoated.”
