LOPER, Raymond “Butch” – (1888-1956) son of William and Cora, had a butcher shop/IGA grocery store at 108 Harrison Street. He also worked for John T. Haney's meat business in town, and was a relief butcher at American Stores on Bridge Street. An affable man, he liked to spend his lunch hour at Eichlin Pontiac, smoking a cigar and chatting with cronies. Gloria Sipes Paleveda wrote that in the 1930s, Dr. Harry and Mamie Harman would leave their caged parrot on the front porch of their mansion on the western corner of Harrison and Bridge streets. The bird, named Woodrow Wilson, would exchange pleasantries with passersby. Paleveda did not mention the parrot's acquisition of foul language. But other people have. The Harmans were baffled by the cursing; they were polite people and knew Woodrow Wilson hadn't picked it up from them. Upon investigating, they determined that Butch Loper, whose shop was just across Harrison Street, had been coaching the parrot on the sly. Good one, Butch! * * * The accompanying pictures are of the Harman mansion, which was demolished in 1958; some random parrot; and Butch Loper, shown in a detail from a 1935 painting by Robert Hogue. From “Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia”
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