Charles Woods, WWII vet and frequent gubernatorial candidate, dies at 83
10-18-2004, 1:33 p.m.
DOTHAN
Charles Woods, who overcame the scars of a fiery World War II plane
crash to become a wealthy media and real estate owner and perennial
political candidate, has died at age 83.
Woods died Sunday at Extendicare, a health and rehabilitation center
in Dothan, according to WTVY, the television station he owned for 40 years.
Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Calvary Baptist Church
in Dothan.
Other details were not immediately available.
Woods' face and hands were disfigured by burns in the crash of the
B-17 he was piloting in 1944. But after the war he started a house-building
business and in 1955 launched Dothan's first TV station, the beginning of a
media chain and other business ventures that made him wealthy.
"I consider myself an ordinary man who has been extraordinarily
blessed by God," he told The Associated Press in a 2000 interview.
His holdings were reduced to a radio station and an office building
when he ran into financial problems in the early 1990s. But he continued his
unsuccessful quest for political office - including runs for president, the
U.S. Senate and House as well as statehouse posts - with a final losing bid
for a Congressional seat in Alabama's 2nd District in 2002.
Woods ran both as a Democrat and a Republican, in both Alabama and
Nevada, where he lived at times.
"I want to spend the rest of my life further answering God's call to
me," he told the AP in a 1996 interview. "I want to make a difference for
the rest of my life."
According to Woods, he was born in a shack in a coal mining community
called Toadvine near Birmingham in 1921 and was given to an orphanage by his
mother after his father ran off. Raised by a farm family in Headland, he
became a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force and then U.S. forces.
When his plane crashed on takeoff in northeast India and became an
inferno of exploding fuel, he was burned over 70 percent of his body and
spent the next five years in military hospitals, undergoing an estimated 100
operations.
Once a dashing airman, Woods was extensively disfigured and scarred.
But he said later in life that it changed him for the better. "I was
self-centered and selfish," he said. "Now I'm a giver instead of a taker."
Chairman of the state prison board in the 1960s, he ran for governor
in 1966 and 1970, the first of numerous unsuccessful bids for elective
office. One of his strongest showings was in 1974, when he led the
Democratic primary for lieutenant governor but lost in a runoff to Jere
Beasley.
While at a veterans hospital in Las Vegas for treatment in 1992, he
ran both for president and the U.S. Senate. The Senate campaign led to a
federal judge imposing a $50,000 fine for improper campaign contributions.
He filed for personal bankruptcy during divorce proceedings in the
1990s but was eventually discharged from bankruptcy court after selling
land, a cabin cruiser and other possessions to settle his debts.
===========================
``The election of John Kerry will serve notice to every terrorist in every
cave that the soft underbelly of American power is the timidity of American
voters.Terrorists will know that a steady stream of grizzly photos for CNN
is all you need to break the will of the American people. Our own self-doubt
will take it from there.'' -- Prof. William Manweller-- Cent. Wash. Univ.
______________________________________________________
RollTideFan - The University of Alabama Athletics Discussion List
Welcome to RollTideFan! Wear a cup!
To join or leave the list or to make changes to your subscription visit
http://listinfo.rolltidefan.net
New AOL.com addresses are NOT allowed on this list. Get a real ISP.
