Remembering Old Timers organizer David Housley

Editor’s note: This obituary was submitted to LINK nky by Ninth Street Baptist Church Pastor Richard Fowler.

David Housley was a student at Holmes High School when he lived in the southern area of Covington known as Peaselburg.

He was considered a good athlete, though he didn’t play baseball, just basketball in high school. But he was a good coach for both sports. Good enough to work with the Northern Kentucky Community Center when it first got underway on Prospect in the old Bluebird Bakery building.

He eventually worked for the city of Covington as manager of the Randolph Park swimming pool for 30 years. However, baseball and basketball were still his passion.

If you asked anyone on the East Side, “Who is David Housley?” the immediate response is, “Old Timers.” In the mid-1980s, David had a dream, and it became the true metaphor of what one person can do to change a community when he is determined.

No matter who else may have worked with him initially to get it organized or who may have been at the table when ideas were passed around, it was David that kept Old Timers going for over 35 years. Talk about passion.

Each year, come the middle of July, people would begin asking questions such as, “Is it going to happen?” and “Will we have Old Timers this year?” The reason for the questions was that the city of Covington reached a point of not having the homeless camp out next to the river. Well, Old Timers included overnight camping with tents and grills and music and sharing stories between the generations and many that reflected on old times.

People set up in Randolph Park starting on Thursdays, picking their spots and planning for the weekend through Sundays. It was Old Timers’ weekend, a festive time to visit the community we grew up in and see people we hadn’t seen in ages.

From across the country, they came to see the changes that took place in the city, the neighborhood and each other. When the city shut down the camping, the event changed in atmosphere.

But David was persistent, and so was the community; we had to have Old Timers, a family reunion of sorts. Nearby churches provided space for vendors, with food and a host of wares, including clothing, recorded music, jewelry, ethnic wear and more. The festive time still went on with basketball and softball competitions, the games, the tents, the sharing of old times and the food. But this year was different, for sure.

David wasn't there to kick it off on Friday evening or be the ever-present manager of affairs among the crowd.

David left this world on Monday, July 24, just a few days before this year’s annual Old Timers. It wasn’t the same, but in his memory, we remembered David, the guy we called “the Governor of the East Side.”

Like many of the Old Timers, David has joined that great parade of those that don’t play basketball any more or manage the softball teams. But if you squint really tight, you might see a slim guy in a trench coat and a dress hat walking through Randolph Park or peaking through the chain link fence, shaking his head at a bad call by the ump.

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