Ricky Boatwright

Ricky Boatwright (November 24, 1969) was born Ricky Darnell Boatwright, in West Memphis, Arkansas. My mother was a high school graduate of Parkdale, Arkansas and my father only had an eighth grade education. He was raised in England, Arkansas. One might say that Ricky was raised in a big family. He is the youngest of five brothers on his mother side. His father had early children from a previous marriage and other encounters of other women. At the age of 11 Ricky's parents split. The father moved out because of his infidelity. His father wanted Ricky's mother to ask him back but she was tired of his actions and never did. Although this incident happened Ricky still became sort of close to his father. He was never close with either of his parents. Lillian (Ricky's mother) did raise the family but she did have some problems with her sister. In other words my aunt did not want Lillians children to become more successful than hers. Ricky began his school at Wonder Elementary and went to Wonder Junior High. He made many friends but for some reason he made enemies also. Mostly because some students became jealous of him. Ricky did not try to chase any of his peers girlfriends. They just thought that was the reason some girls spoke so highly of him. At first it was very hard in school but even with problems he still had a good times. The good weighed out the bad. Of course Ricky also had some girls that despised him. That goes with the territory. Ricky say his very first football game at the age of 3. He still remembers that game. It was the Steelers versus the Oakland Raiders. The Steelers was behind and seconds was counting down. On the last play of the game Terry Bradshaw passed the ball to Lynn Swan and Jack Tatum hit the ball out of Lynn's hands but the ball flew into Franco Harris hands and he ran to a game winning touchdown. This is how he fell in love with football. Both teams became his favorite. Ricky played little league football in the fifth grade. Instead of playing offense he became a defensive star. Hence the nickname Bam-Bam Boatwright. That pleasure did not last long because in high school Ricky did not like the coach's attitude. The coach did not let the best players play on the field. In the 11th grade he quit football. Something did happen during the ninth grade year. In french class Ricky wanted to ask this beautiful girl out. She turned around looked right in his eyes and said "I am not interested in you". It seems funny now because the same girl that told me those words married me ten years later. Ricky and Anji have been married for 12 years and have two daughters. Ricky was very happy she turned him down at that age because he was very immature. They would have never stayed together. During the years without his wifes' love, Ricky did have some problems finding a career. He went through many jobs and all of them was horrible. From working on the Mississippi river, Panchoes, Southland Greyhound Park, Family Dollar and 3D screenwriting just to name a view Ricky decided that labor jobs did not appeal to his career. Later on he finally fell in love with movie production. He was on his forklift one day at work after working over seventy hours that week, he looked up to the ceiling and asked the Lord "I want to find someway to go to college". Later that week he got sick and fired from his job. Some people would wonder how could that help him go to college. Well after he was fired from his job, his wife decided to go back to school. She woke him up and asked him if he wanted to go to Memphis and gather all the information (tax forms) so she could start school. He told her why not and they both started college. After entering the collegiate status, there were many trails and tribulation. His family was flooded out twice and he also lost jobs because of racism. The fight for education went on. Without his wife's' and family love he would never graduated. Now he has a general education associate degree and a proficiency certificate in media broadcasting. Ricky have many more obstacles to climb before he receives his bachelors degree in film production and a minor in Spanish. Last semester anything that went wrong did go wrong. His children caught strep and he lost yet another job. He got so far behind, Ricky almost gave up. With the help of Mr. Craig Leake, Mrs. Kris Markman, Ms. Sarah Brown and other awesome students Ricky would not have been in the position to graduate this fall. Sometimes a few kind words and the push from others can carry a person a long way. Ricky also have to thank Ms. Roxy Ghee for her encouraging words.