“From Sawdust to Stardust” is DeForest Kelley’s Biography

Into Carolyn’s Kelley scrapbook, she had copied a poem:

Love will fly if held too lightly

Love will die if held too tightly

Lightly, tightly

How do I know

Whether I’m killing or letting you go?

I think this poem resonated with her because she was insecure . Her troubled upbringing–by a cold, calculating single mother who withheld affection and encouragement from her and treated her like excess baggage–established and secured the malady, which would haunt her all her life. The poem probably resonated with her as soon as she knew she had met the ultimate love of her life, a fellow Long Beach actor four years her junior: DeForest Kelley. They tied the knot when he was 25.

She always feared losing De to someone who could love him more—someone with less baggage. It never happened. De was true blue. No matter how hard the row to hoe, he “got” Carolyn; he loved and understood her, and he stood by her through thick and thin. It must have been hell at times to be the guardian of whatever little self-esteem she managed to retain after such an upbringing. But because he understood, he jumped through all kinds of extra hoops to make sure she knew she was his forever love and partner.

I bring this up now because I’ve just finished reading–for at least the third time in eleven years–Terry Lee Rioux’s biography of DeForest Kelley  FROM SAWDUST TO STARDUST.

If asked to describe it in one word, I would have to say “Elegant.” In two words: “Masterfully elegant.”

Which is why I knew she was the person to write it. My prose lacks elegance.  I’m an anecdotal writer. My prose comes across like someone who’s sitting across the table from you sharing stories that make you want to (or need to) laugh, sigh or cry. I could never have done De’s biography justice in the way she has.

(Here’s bit of background for those of you who haven’t read either book: De gave me permission to write his biography; then he pointed out to me where in the garage his and Carolyn’s archives were. After his death, I reached out to Terry to do the bio and, when she agreed, I turned her loose in the Kelley’s home and garage where her research began. And Carolyn, who was still alive, engaged to tell her additional up close and personal accounts, as did scores of other people who knew, grew up with, worked with, and loved De. Including me.)

All this said, fans have declared, in IMs to me and in reviews, that although they love both books about De–Terry’s and mine–they enjoyed mine more. And that’s wonderful, that’s as it should be.

Terry’s a Professor. Her book is a professionally-crafted, intensely researched work that puts the puzzle of De’s life and career together in a way that an objective historian is obligated to craft a scholarly, well-documented manuscript.

Terry never had the pleasure of meeting De–a real tragedy, to be sure, since she loved and respected him from afar, considering him her honorary grandfather. Even so, she’s a trained biographer–Bill Moyers was astounded at her accurate recounting of the Kennedy-Nixon campaign and the anti-Catholic sentiments that threatened JFK’s run for the Presidency, especially since Terry wasn’t even born when the controversy  took place. Moyers considered her recounting of that era historical mastery of the highest order, by all accounts.

But Terry’s loss–never having met De–became our gain. Because she had the distance that’s required to watch the parade of his life from a rooftop. She had to find the personalities who peopled his life and get down on the ground with them to discover the DeForest Kelley they knew, admired and loved, from his earliest childhood days until he took his last breath on June 11, 1999.

I proclaim, again, Terry’s biography of DeForest Kelley elegant. Elegance isn’t, by definition, organically enjoyable. It’s aesthetically enjoyable. Elegance is understated excellence.  The Free Dictionary defines elegance this way:

1.

a. Refinement, grace, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners.
b. Tasteful opulence in form, decoration, or presentation.

2.

a. Restraint and grace of style.
b. Scientific exactness and precision.

 

 

De was an elegant man. Like De, Terry’s bio slows the reader down so we adopt De’s pace: measured, methodical, laid-back, reserved–almost Zen-like. We get a sense of his being just in the way Terry wrote the story. That’s elegant. That’s masterful!

 
By contrast, my memoir of my life and times with De travels at my pace. It’s downright hectic (frantic) and hysterical (funny) in too many places to count, while in other spots it’s impregnated with  poignancy by virtue of what we were going through at the time I was writing about.

 
Our two efforts (Terry’s, and mine)  to reveal DeForest Kelley clearly point out the stark, well-defined differences between writing a detailed, in-depth history of a man and a one-to-one “show-and-tell” free for all!

 
It’s the difference between “Watch how a magnificent sand sculpture is fashioned by professionals” and “Get in the sandbox with me this minute! Let’s make a sand sculpture! Grab your bucket and shovel. I already have the moulds we need to shape it right.”

 
So I guess what I’m saying (the long way around) is that if you have one of these books and not the other, you are truly missing out. You cannot know DeForest Kelley the way his friends, family, co-workers, and the fans who got to meet him at conventions and other places did until you read both books.

 
You cannot love him the way we did. You cannot know the REAL McCoy until you have trod the same sawdust trail between Georgia and Long Beach, between Long Beach and Star Trek, between Star Trek and a lasting legacy.

 
Don’t miss out.  Even if you never watched Star Trek or westerns, and don’t care about actors, you need to meet DeForest Kelley. When you do, you’ll discover what a gentleman looks like…what a gentleman does…how to be a gentleman that women adore to their core, and how to love a gentleman who belongs, heart and soul, to his wife.

***********

Oh! P.S. I almost forgot, in my rush to point you to Terry’s bio of De! If you want to hear the Kelley’s and my voices in my memoir about De, get the audio book version!  It’s available exclusively right here at Yellow Balloon Publications… Read about it first, though. It’s designed to play on limited devices… not in your vehicle!