BEAUMONT, Texas — A Southeast Texan many remember as “Black Bart” from a 1960s local children’s television show as well as local radio over the years passed away Tuesday at 92.
John Stevens, Sr. played the sidekick to “Cowboy John” on the “Circle 4 Club” show on KPAC-NBC beginning in 1958. He performed as the bad guy to John Garner’s good guy until 1970 according to his obituary at Broussard’s.
Stevens, a 1945 Thomas Jefferson High School grad, was born and raised in Port Arthur according to the obituary.
He began his career in broadcasting in 1947 covering sports, including Texas League Baseball, for Port Arthur’s KPAC Radio.
MORE | John Stevens Sr. Obituary
In April 1957 while in Dallas he witnessed the tornado that left a path of destruction from Oak Cliff to Love Field killing 10 people. He called in to KPAC and made a live report as the tornado headed toward him.
The radio station then hired him to do news as well as sell ads and work as a disc jockey the obit said.
Later the same year after Hurricane Audrey struck just west of Cameron, Louisiana, Stevens reported the disaster via ship-to-shore radio back to KPAC and the rest of the world.
He talked his way onto a tugboat carrying medical supplies from Port Arthur to Cameron and recalled seeing bodies floating where the small Gulf Coast town had been according to the obituary.
Stevens reported that the crew tied the tugboat off to the courthouse which was the only building left standing.
Through the 1950s and 1960s Stevens was also very active in the Southeast Texas community performing with productions at the Beaumont Community Players and Port Arthur Little Theatre.
He also was an officer with the Beaumont Junior Chamber of Commerce, President of the Salvation Army in South Jefferson County and was active in the Groves Rotary Club.
He worked as vice president of First State Bank of Groves in the late sixties and later started his own advertising and PR firm in 1979.
Stevens began a 20-year stint working with Lamar University’s KVLU Public Radio in 1986 where he volunteered his radio talents to host a variety of musical programs.
Some of those shows included popular “Juke Box Saturday Night,” “At the Hop,” and “Big Band Danceland.”
A gathering of Stevens’ family and friends will be at 4 p.m. Sunday December 15, 2019, followed by a Christian Vigil at Broussard’s at 2000 McFaddin Avenue in Beaumont.
A funeral mass for Stevens will be celebrated 11 a.m., Monday, December 16, 2019, at St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica in Beaumont followed by a post-service gathering at The Laurels at 1315 Calder Avenue in Beaumont.
Memorial contributions are suggested in support of public radio and may be made to K.V.L.U. Public Radio, Lamar University, P.O. Box 10064, Beaumont, Texas 77710.
