An Interview with Nedra Jones: Willie Houston's Fiancee Remembers

"He stopped a dream that was going to come true. Our dream."

According to his fiancee, Willie Houston was shot with his hands in the air, raising his palms in front of his chest, and pleading: "Man, we had a good time, and I'm just ready to go home and go to bed."

Nedra Jones recalled details recently for the Nashville Tennessean. Jones, Houston and two friends had gone on a midnight cruise on the General Jackson showboat.

Afterwards, Houston helped his blind companion into a rest room. Ms. Jones had asked him to hold her purse while she, too, used the restroom.

Lewis Maynard Davidson III, 25, reportedly taunted Houston with anti-gay remarks. According to Ms. Jones, "Not one harsh word did he say to him, because that's not Willie."

She believes Houston's refusal to be provoked was part of what enraged his assailant, adding that Davison "looked like he was on something. I don't know if he was drunk or on drugs, but he didn't look normal."

According to Jones, Houston had told her: '"There's some guys in the rest room making fun because I had the purse and [friend's name] on my arm." But the man followed Houston out of the restroom, continuing to taunt him.

When Jones interrupted to tell him, "Now, you don't have to talk to him like that,'" she says Davidson called her a "fat bitch."

Houston then asked the man to show some respect, and adding, "Man, I had a good time on the boat, and we're just ready to go."

"I've got something for you in my car. I've got something for all you, something to take your whole clan out," Davidson then told them according to Jones.

She had turned to tell their two friends goodbye when Davidson returned, this time holding a gun which he pointed directly at Houston's chest, asking, "Now what you got to say?"

Houston held his hands up, explaining that he just wanted to go home. But according to Jones the man fired and fled. It was about 3:10 am.

Houston grabbed his knees, Jones said, and gasped for breath. "I called him and then lowered him down," she said. "He said he couldn't breathe."

Jones' female friend put pressure on Houston's wound to stop the bleeding. "Just remember, I will always love you," Houston told Jones moments before paramedics took him away.

He died in surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Services for Houston, who was an AccessRide program bus driver for MTA's special needs customers - the elderly and disabled -- were held in his hometown of Chicago.

Ms. Jones, who was planning to attend a wedding, instead attended a funeral. Referring to the killing, she added. "He stopped a dream that was going to come true. Our dream. He put a stop to that." |G|