Midtown icon gone as 'Peanut Man' dies at 86
JoeThomas
his small paper bags of peanuts under the oaks at the Loop, died Friday,
according to his lawyer.
Wilson's death at 86 came several months after he sold his last bag of
peanuts and was moved to a nursing home.
He peddled peanuts at the Loop for years, becoming "an icon in Mobile,"
according to Deborah Gibson Deguire, who sold him peanuts at A&M Peanut Shop
in downtown.
But by last fall, the Peanut Man was beginning to falter.
"He was getting a little absentminded, and on a couple of occasions he
couldn't remember the way home," said Mike Langan, Wilson's lawyer.
For the last couple of weeks, Wilson was treated at Springhill Memorial
Hospital for a case of pneumonia that he couldn't shake, Langan said.
Artist Sheila Hagler, who photographed Wilson in 1989 "in his prime" with
his signature cloth-lined picnic basket hooked over his arm, said she
believed the religious man was at peace.
"He had great faith. ... a really sweet person and he had a sweet soul," she
said. "I loved him dearly."
Wilson was a member of First Baptist Church of Mobile, according to Pine
Crest Funeral Home, which is handling his service.
By the time Hagler took that photo, Wilson was already a local legend. He
spent much of his time pacing along the road, sometimes holding up bags of
peanuts, other times peering into windows to make a sale. He was rumored to
have vast wealth, which Hagler has said she doubted.
In 1998, as the city started to dry out after Hurricane Georges, a reporter
noted that the Peanut Man had taken up his post by the cannon again,
prompting Mayor Mike Dow to declare, "Business is back to normal."
Hagler said she grew to know Wilson well, walking with him and giving him
rides to the peanut store.
She said Wilson found pleasure in selling peanuts to people because "they
needed something and he had something to offer them. ... That was the way he
connected."
"He sought connectedness."
Wilson lived within walking distance of the Loop's cannon at Government
Street and Airport Boulevard and he never learned to drive, Langan said.
Though he accepted rides from people -- Langan said he recommended against
it -- the short, slightly stooped man walked many places until he entered
the nursing home.
"He generally went downtown one time a week even though I'd tell him not to,
and ask him not to," Langan said.
Former Mayor Joseph Langan was Wilson's lawyer and oversaw a trust
established by Wilson's mother. Mike Langan assumed that role after Joseph
Langan, his uncle, died. Besides managing the trust, Mike Langan took over
the duty of buying Wilson's groceries.
He described Wilson as "kind of like a child in a lot of ways, very trusting
of people. ... He kind of took people at their word until they did something
that would prove them not to be."
Wilson was occasionally robbed, an easy target with the wads of bills
sticking out of his pockets.
He had one sister, who died in infancy, and a brother, Langan said. He is
survived by three Mobile relatives, niece Karen Wilson Leonard and nephews
William "Bill" Wilson and David L. Wilson, as well as six great-nieces and
four great-great nephews.
A graveside service is set for 11 a.m. Monday in Pine Crest Cemetery, with
visitation at Pine Crest Funeral Home from 10 a.m. until service time.
At A&M Peanut Shop, Deguire was sweeping under the store's roaster Friday
afternoon shortly after hearing of Wilson's death.
Even before she took over her family's peanut shop, Deguire knew Wilson from
living nearby as a child. She remembered him leaving for church every Sunday
dressed in a suit.
"I think a lot of people have a lot of fond memories of him, and he'll be
missed," Deguire said. "We had people come in today and ask about him."