Deacon Bowers
Deacon Bowers always on the front line for veterans
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* Story by Rozella Hardin and Contributed Photos *
rthur “Deacon” Bowers has been a fighter all his life — if not for himself, then for someone else. Born and raised at Hunter, Bowers, who is now retired and in his 80s, has been a lot of places and done a lot of things. On that list is amateur boxer; a youngster who deceived a lot of people about his age to get into the military; a founding member of the Veterans War Memorial and Veterans Walk of Honor downtown; and through his employment with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development has assisted thousands of veterans. In the meantime, he has taken a lot of jabs and punches, both in and out of the ring, that have left him unscarred and more determined than ever to serve on the front line, especially for veterans. Bowers was 19 or 20 years old before he began boxing at the urging of
trainer Don Marshall. “I’d go to the old Teen Town every day and spar for 10 or 15 minutes and then run to the old box factory and back. I was in boxing about three years and had about 56 or 57 bouts,” Bowers shared. His most memorable bout was with Jack Snader at the Bristol VFW. “Jack had knocked out everyone up there. He was really tough, but I knocked him out,” Bowers shared with a grin. Bowers went on to win the Upper East Tennessee Heavyweight title (he won twice, the first time in 1958, and again in 1959.) He also won the Southern Golden Gloves Heavyweight title in Nashville in 1958 and 1959, and went to the quarterfinals of the National Golden Gloves Championship in Chicago in 1959. “That same year — 1959 — I was scheduled to fight Cassius Clay in Elizabethton, but he came down with the flu and reneged,” Bowers shared.
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