From newsboy to new author — at home on the Island

Iberia Parish, and the surrounding Teche Area, is filled with creative people. Some are seen and known for their accomplishments in the state. Others have spent a life time traveling the world but always returning to the home they’ve loved since childhood.

Ken Ringle spent favorite childhood moments with family in Iberia Parish — much like the ones James Lee Burke experienced and wrote about in his 20 novels being celebrated this weekend at Dave Robicheaux’s Hometown Literary Festival. Ringle was one of the authors signing books at the Jolie Blon Book Fair on Main Street Saturday.

“Writing has always come easily to me, even as a kid,” Ringle said. “My parents loved to read and read aloud to us a lot. Reading was how I wasted time instead of math. I was always reading. Because of the reading, the writing always came easy.”

At 78 Ringle has written his first book — not the one his friends in the publishing business expected, rather, one that simply poured out as he sat at the keyboard. Having a professional writing career for more than 60 years surely played a roll in accomplishing the task. The self-published author has a treasure trove of memories and experiences to draw upon.

Early Recollections

A few locals may still remember Ringle’s contributions at The Daily Iberian in the mid-1950s. At his father’s insistence, Ringle took a summer job for two years as a photographer and reporter for the local newspaper. Ringle took and developed photographs, mostly baby showers and beauty contests.

In those years, working at any newspaper was a seedy environment especially for an impressionable young man. A poker game was a regular occurrence at a local eatery at noon, he said. His preference would have been to ship out on a freighter or go offshore but at an early age, the choices were few.

“The joke going around at the time for reporters,” Ringle said, “was, ‘Tell my mother I play piano in a whore house but don’t tell her I write for a newspaper.’ The other one was, ‘If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.’ The emphasis was on accuracy. Writing for a newspaper was not very reputable at the time. Writers were considered failed poets, dilettante novelists and alcoholic drifters.”

Ringle got his press credits from The Daily Iberian in 1956 to cover the Eisenhower inauguration because he was living near Washington D.C. That was heady stuff for a teenager, he said.

As a young teenager, he remembers very well being snowed in with a group of Louisiana beauty queens at the Mayflower Hotel. Brenda Hanks, the shrimp queen from Delcambre who played great rock-n-roll on piano, caught his eye. That year he also covered the Louisiana Society Mardi Gras Ball. Lindy and Hale Boggs’ daughter, Barbara Boggs, arranged for Ken Ringle’s invitation to the Ball he covered in the 1950s for The Daily Iberian. 

Scanning the crowd Ringle spotted a U.S. Senator sitting alone and looking rather bored. John F. Kennedy was gracious, Ringle said, and overlooked the simplicity of the questions from a young reporter.

Richard Nixon also made an appearance at the event but was unimpressive to Ringle. The photographs taken and story submitted back in Louisiana were initially ignored by the editorial staff — until two years later when Kennedy became president.

“To my horror, Shane (Bernard) dredged up something I wrote as a teenager, this self-important voice of a teenage when I was about 16 or 17,” Ringle said.

Last Man Across

As one of his assignments, Ringle was sent with a reporter to take pictures of the flood waters resulting from Hurricane Audrey that severely inundated Cameron Parish.

“I had been taking pictures in Crowley. It was a June hurricane and they didn’t have the forecasting. In the middle of the night it changed direction,” Ringle said. “We were standing on top of a building watching a galvanized roof thinking if it blew off, we could have have our heads cut off.”

So they left and returned to the paper before Ringle drove home to Avery Island.

“We had this 1955 Chevrolet. The water was pouring over the bridge, high water past the tollgate,” Ringle said. “I was thinking if the car was left on the road it might be swept away.”

Instead he used the clutch to gun his way across. He said the car kept running until he reached the middle of the bridge. It started to move with the current of the water until he gunned it to get to the other side. His father helped wash off the salt water to prevent corrosion. As they rinsed the engine, tiny fish began to immerge from where the water had seeped in.

Family Ties

Ringle is one of three siblings raised from coast to coast with Avery Island as the anchor for their family life. He is the middle child born in San Diego to Rear Admiral Kenneth D. Ringle and Margaret Johnston Avery Ringle. His mother was in Europe visiting her older sister whose husband was in the import/export business. When Ringle’s father’s ship came into port, the military invited young women of prominence to the elaborate events held to entertain young Navy officers wearing dress white uniforms.

“They met at a horseback picnic in Portugal, a very romantic thing, and then he was gone for three years,” Ringle said. “They wrote one another. And when he came back he made a beeline down here and said, ‘I think you should marry me.’ It was a big deal at the time. This was the depression and she had no idea what her life would be like.”

Ringle remembers things about World War II while living in California — blimps searching for submarines off the cost — it was all about guns and ships. Other years carried the family to live in Washington D.C. Everything there was about paper. That was not so impressionable to a young lad.

Ringle said a few years ago a historian at the Pentagon contacted him while researching how Rear Admiral Ringle almost single handedly wrote the Naval provisions to the NATO Treaty. It was the only part that didn’t have to be rewritten for more than 40 years.

“I’m extremely proud that now his work trying to halt the internment of the Japanese-Americans is known,” Ringle said. “He was unsuccessful and he always felt it was the biggest failure of his life. Now he is a hero because the records are now released. The whole thing is a story in itself. The Japanese-Americans have made a place for him in their museum in California.”

Military veterans and other historians or residents interested in naval experiences may know of the Admiral’s accomplishments. The Iberia Parish Library Main Branch has a section of the non-fiction books dedicated to him and a display in his honor. It’s tucked in the back corner so unless a reader is seeking out historical military books, it may go unnoticed.

Coming Home to Avery Island

After the active seaman years aboard ship, Admiral and Mrs. Ringle decided they needed time to rekindle their lives as a couple and sent their three children to stay with their grandmother and aunts on Avery Island. Throughout the years, the island was a place they frequented a least six weeks a year regardless of which coast they were living on.

Ringle said that was a treat for the young siblings. Exploring the island, listening to his aunts talking and attending school at the two room schoolhouse created memories that have lasted a lifetime. Their mother’s sister, Katherine Buckner Avery, was fascinating to know, he said.

“I lived with her and my grandmother after the war. They had a ‘Dick and Jane’ farm over there. They milked the cow every day and brought milk to the school, grew vegetables and raised chickens and turkeys. It was wonderfully exotic to me,” Ringle said. “The people were terribly interesting. If you got bored as a kid listening to the grown ups, you could go listen to Uncle Louie who was milking the cow or Sonny who was gardening or the cook would give you food. It was all these different people but it was all community.”

The Ringle children still call Avery Island their second home even though the eldest child, Sally, lives in Lynchburg, Virginia, Ken’s home is in Washington D.C. and younger brother Andy is living as a Catholic missionary in the Amazon.

Just In Time

Less than a week ago, amid the annual family business meeting and reunions, Ringle learned about the James Lee Burke events slated for New Iberia. As a new author, he was eager to sign up for a table to meet potential readers of “Squeeze Play,” a dark comedic novel in the style of Carl Hiaasen.

According to Books Along the Teche owner Lorraine Kingston, Hiaasen writes these crazy, off the wall, dry wit, left field humor books set in Florida. She hasn’t read Ringle’s yet but expects it to be similar. She hasn’t start it yet because she’s still reading Anne Simon’s new book, also featured at the book store.

Ringle is no stranger to Howard and Lorraine Kingston. After inquiring about the Robicheaux festival, Ringle asked, “Do you remember me?”

“His hair had gotten grey but he looked just the same,” said Lorraine Kingston. “One day Jim (Burke) came into the store. In those early days he always brought a (media) entourage with him. His signings were at times on national television.”

Thanks to James Lee Burke books, she remembers being written up in a number of television news features and publications including the London Telegraph and The Washington Post. Ringle was the reporter for The Washington Post nearly 40 years after walking the Teche Area as a reporter/photographer.

“After we visited the other day, Ken asked if I remembered him writing about the bookstore. I said, ‘Yes, you called us the Main Street Bookstore,’ ” Lorraine Kingston laughed at the remembrance. “We were just happy to be in the Washington Post. Everybody knew who we were. Only three years in business, we were happy about the publicity.”

Kingston said after the interview, Burke took the whole group including his wife and family, the press — a group of more than 20 — to a restaurant in St. Martinville for dinner, a fond memory of Ringle’s as well. The dinner visit brought a bonding time that Kingston felt was the reason they were included in the story.

Notable Career

Reading about Ringle’s career online only makes the journalist curious to read his exposes as well as the new novel. The Neiman Watchdog’s description of the writer meets with his approval.

“During a 33-year career as an award-winning writer, editor, essayist and critic at The Washington Post, Ken Ringle spent extensive periods writing about ships, oceans and the environment, which have been lifelong interests,” the Neiman Watchdog said. “He grew up among the abundant wildlife and oil rigs of Southwest Louisiana where he maintains a second home. He was educated at the University of Virginia, was a Washington Post Fellow at Duke University and is a recognized authority on the maritime novelist Patrick O’Brian, on whose work he has organized seminars for the Smithsonian, Mystic Seaport and other institutions.

“Ringle’s articles have appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian, European Affairs and other publications. He has also voyaged more than 10,000 ocean miles under sail, much of it as a tall ship crewman, and recently completed a 28-day passage from Lisbon to West Palm beach on a 40-foot sloop. He lives in Washington,” said the Neiman Watchdog.

What it didn’t say was that Ringle was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his expose about an aid to U.S. Congressman Jim Wright who almost murdered a young woman. The investigation by Ringle brought to light illegal acts swept politically uncover which brought upheaval to Capitol Hill along with resignations.

His recountings are too numerous to mention, but well worth an afternoon on Avery Island or at dinner in New Iberia.

If you missed meeting Ringle last Saturday, his signed book, “Squeeze Play,” is available at Books Along the Teche. Perhaps he can be spotted somewhere along Main Street. He has many stories to tell.