‘John Wayne’ makes trip to Reserve’s War Veterans Home
Published 12:09 am Wednesday, October 14, 2015
- John Wayne Impersonator Dr. Gene Howard speaks to residents the the Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Home in Reserve.
RESERVE — John Wayne Impersonator Dr. Gene Howard visited the residents of Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Home in Reserve Monday afternoon.
Gene Howard asked the residents trivia questions about John Wayne movies.
Howard asked the residents trivia questions about John Wayne movies, recited different poems, shared jokes and, along with doing John Wayne impersonations, performed impersonations of Jimmy Stewart and Walter Brennan.
After the impersonations, Howard spoke with the crowd about letting Jesus into their lives.
“I’ve been in ministry for over 40 years,” Howard said. “John Wayne didn’t start to look like me ’til about 28 years ago.”
In all, Howard said he could do 40 different voices.
“People started to tell me I looked like John Wayne, so I thought maybe we could get people to come see John Wayne and wind up seeing Jesus.”
Howard has many different sermons he pairs with his John Wayne impersonation shows. The one he shared Monday was his Freedom and Sacrifice sermon.
Out of all the Wayne movies, Howard said his favorite was the 1959 film, “Rio Bravo.”
— By Raquel Derganz Baker
