Columbus will never be the same again. Uncle Bunky passed away last week. The icon of children’s television programing and unstoppable children’s advocate may be physically gone but his legacy lives on. It is a legacy shared by tens of thousands who as children appeared on “Fun Time” and by never to be known numbers of others saved by his intervention as a child abuse and neglect investigator for the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department. Bunky loved all people, especially children and he loved a good laugh and loved making people smile.
That ability to make people smile must have started early on because as a small child Robert Williams was given the nickname Bunky after a baby named Bunky in a comic strip by Billy, the creator of Snuffy Smith.
Bunky always had a story to tell. One of my favorite stories was of Bunky working when a teenager at the Smoke Shop, a downtown Columbus men’s establishment. There people would come for a cold beverage, get a newspaper, a shoeshine or find out the latest sporting news from the tickertape located there.
Bunky’s father had a service station just down the street where people would gather to listen to professional baseball games on the radio. Back then the radio broadcast were not live but an announcer read from a tickertape as though they were live. The men often placed small bets on the games and Bunky soon made a discovery. The Smoke Shop’s tickertape provided game information and scores before they were reported on the radio. Bunky said he felt bad but not too bad about occasionally seeing on the tickertape that a player had made a big play and then running down to the service station and betting on what might happen next in the game. People were amazed at Bunky’s ability to know the game so well and in the process Bunky became a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan.
Bunky said he could not think of old Lee High days without recalling fun times with his cousin Gene Williams. According to Bunky, Gene was the ultimate spitball shooter. He had taken a large pencil and removed its lead center leaving a hollow tube and perfect shooter. With it he could “shoot the meanest spitball at the teacher” but look totally innocent with only a pencil in his hand when the teacher would turn around and look for the culprit.
It was as the host of the long running “Fun Time” television show that Bunky is best remembered. Bunky went to work for WCBI Television in Columbus in its early days. He was hired as art director in 1958 but soon found himself doing a children’s program, “Time with Uncle Bunky and Cousin Ed.” Cousin Ed was Ed Prescott, who was later sheriff of Lowndes County. Ed only lasted about three months and the show became simply “Fun Time” hosted by Uncle Bunky.
Bunky’s trademark was drawing crazy animals. He would entertain a studio full of children by drawing any mixture of animals they could dream up. An alligator’s head with an elephant’s body and a fish’s tail might be the request and in the blink of an eye the animal would be drawn.
I don’t recall anyone ever stumping him but that wasn’t because no one ever tried. Sometimes kids would mail in request for crazy animals which Bunky would open on the air and then draw.
Once some students at Mississippi State mailed in a request using the scientific name of some obscure animals thinking Bunky wouldn’t know what they were but Bunky happened to open the letter before the show and looked up the names. The students could not believe it when Bunky opened their letter live on the show and knew exactly what the animals were and how they looked.
Those early days of television days found a fun loving crew at WCBI. On one occasion they played a joke on Coleene McCollum, who had an afternoon program called “Something for the Girls.” Ladies would call in and give Coleene household hints. One afternoon Bunky passed a note to her that said a call had come in that the best thing for your fingernails was to stick a tomato on each finger. When Coleene was live on the air she got ten tomatoes and stuck a finger in each one. Then holding her tomato covered hands up to the camera she saw Bunky and the others laughing up a storm. She realized what had happened, said a few unmentionable words on the air and threw the tomatoes at Bunky.
It was the children Bunky was there for. Bunky cared for all children and “Fun Time” became the first television program in Mississippi to be integrated. He especially enjoyed the Brownie and Cub Scout troops and “Fun Time” would be booked way in advance by children from all over northeast Mississippi and west Alabama. In the late 1950s, Bunky even turned down a job offer from Walt Disney as he felt his calling was helping children in his hometown.
After spending decades as a children’s television show host and drawing crazy animals he became an investigator with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department where he handled first narcotics and then child abuse and neglect cases.
Bunky also frequently drew the cartoons that appeared on major college sports programs. At one sports banquet he was seated next to Bear Bryant. After the main course plates of delicious looking lemon pie were served. The Bear ate his piece and turned to Bunky and commented on how fattening the pie was and how it looked like Bunky was putting on weight. When Bunky said maybe he would pass on eating it, Bear said “good” and took Bunky’s pie and ate it.
Bunky was always active wherever and whenever he could help children in need. He for years entertained countless children who were suffering from catastrophic illnesses and were attending Camp Rising Sun. He not only treated them to crazy animals but was still a first class prankster who was known to have handcuffed other adult staff to the flag pole. Even in his declining health this summer, Bunky made it back out to Camp Rising Sun to spread the joy of crazy animals to another generation of children in need of a smile.
Bunky never forgot the images of the needy and abused children he had helped. And I think the biggest smiles I saw on his face would be when he mentioned he had received from out of the blue a late night phone call from a long ago voice saying, “When I was a kid you saved my life and now that I am grown I just wanted to call and thank you.” He was still getting those call and he said “it made it all worth while.”
When you think about Bunky you realize what he did — it was all for the children. See you later alligator!
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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