Hero’s story sparks meeting

Wamul Owens’ telephone started ringing before 8 a.m. on Mother’s Day. It was a phone call he’s been waiting on for decades.

Owens was featured in The News-Star on May 13 in an article detailing his heroic actions on May 10, 1948, when he helped save eight people from drowning on Cheniere Lake.

Decades passed and Owens often wondered what happened to those people he helped save that day.

This month he finally got an answer when Joyce Myatt, one of the children he saved, called to thank him.

“None of the family told them who saved them, and they were too little to remember. She (Myatt) was so thrilled about that article in The News-Star. She looked me up in the phone book and called me. I was thrilled to meet her,” Owens said.

Myatt, 69, lives in West Monroe. She was 4 ½ years old when Owens pulled her out of the lake. Her family often discussed the accident and the young man’s heroic actions.

“I never knew his name and I didn’t even know he was a 16-year-old boy. When I saw the story I knew it was him. It was breath-taking to meet him. It’s like something you read and just can’t believe it’s true,” she said. “I wouldn’t be alive today if not for this man. I waited 64 years to meet him and it was overwhelming to finally meet him.

http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20120603/NEWS01/206030305/Hero-s-story-sparks-meeting?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE