Good Neighbor

(From my brother, Steve, about my grandpa, Ora Dean)

Ora Dean has done a great job with young boxers since he has handled several youths who became top-notch amateurs. For the tournament which concludes tonight (4/14/47) he started with 116 amateurs representing three schools. Several Golden Gloves champions will appear in the 16 bouts tonight. Dean has done fine work in the field of physical fitness.

Perhaps the best fighter Dean ever developed was Donald Dean (Ora's son). Don is fighting Adolf Hitler's gang in Europe now and will have been carrying on overseas for two years, next June 9th.

 

My grandfather told me and wrote a story about his bouts with Jack Dempsey (there is one thing my grandfather did not know at the time he fought Jack Dempsey). Ora's boss set up the 2nd fight on the premise that it would only be for fun. Jack knew it was for fun but Ora did not know about the deal with Kearns (Dempsey’s manager).

When the fight was going on, Jack let his guard down one time and my grandfather gave Jack a hard right uppercut. The blow flung Jack up on the ropes and it caught him off guard. Jack came after Ora at that point and hit my grandfather so hard his whole body came off the ground. Ora was knocked out and was as limp as a wet noodle.

 

Kearns’s said Jack was a real animal and never show any human traits when he fought but he said that night, Jack was a real sweetheart. He told his manager that he hit Ora so hard in the first fight, he shook Dean's whole family tree. Ora was out but Jack put his hands under the armpits of his opponent and held him up so he would not look like he was knocked out. You see Jack did not want Ora to look bad in front of his fellow employees and friends. For many years after that bout, Jack Dempsey called my Grandpa on Christmas Eve just to say hello and Merry Christmas.

 

Ora Dean protected everybody in Kirkwood, Missouri, - women, children, red, black or white, poor or rich. He was known for his work with the black neighbors in Kirkwood and had run ins with some of the residents for his work but never to his face. Ora Dean was a strong, kind, decent, fair and a religious man. He worked for the betterment of the community and the whole town called Ora ‘GOOD NEIGHBOR’.

 

Some years ago, I attended a bachelor party at a downtown St Louis bar. When I was in the bar a man who was in his late 50's approached me with a question. He said, “Man you look a lot like someone I used to know”. He then asked if I lived in Kirkwood, Missouri. I told him ‘no’, but I have a grandfather that used to live there. He asked me if my grandfather was ORA DEAN. He went on to say that I looked so much like him. The man went on to say that Ora taught him to box and he ended up boxing in the Golden Gloves, and, that my grandfather's picture is on the wall there, as a Lifetime Member of the Golden Gloves organization. I have never been able to confirm that story or not. I do know he was very involved in the Golden Gloves organization.

 

I have been looking up information on Ora Dean and found out that he worked as machinist, a truck driver, a Security Guard / Policeman in Staunton Illinois and then moved to Kirkwood, Missouri to become a Police Officer. His badge number was number two for the Kirkwood Police Department and  there was no one who had badge number one. There are many stories of Ora Dean working as Policeman in Kirkwood and you can look up those stories at the Kirkwood Historical Society.