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News Sun photo by SAMANTHA GHOLAR Chaplain Chet Damron has spent the last 36 years working as an Abe Lincoln impressionist. Damron's Lincoln-like features have gotten him attention all over the world.

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published: Friday, October 01, 2010

It was Abe -- honest

By CHRISTOPHER TUFFLEY

christopher.tuffley@newssun.com

SEBRING -- It isn't every day a reporter gets to interview a former president of the United States.

But there he was -- all 6 feet, 4 inches of him -- in the News-Sun's reception area, having arrived directly from addressing the students at Sun 'N Lake Elementary School -- Abraham Lincoln himself.

Chester Damron has been doing impressions of Lincoln for about 36 years, when he wasn't working at his day job as a Seventh Day Adventist missionary in the Far East and then a chaplain for Florida Hospitals in the southeast

It all started by accident when he was recuperating from surgery in the hospital and he let his beard grow.

On a visit one day his 7-year-old daughter looked him over and said, "You look just like Abraham Lincoln, and he's my favorite president"

And so it began.

Since then he has appeared in large productions, including at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. and the Lincoln Memorial, as well as visiting hundreds of classrooms.

Damron doesn't pretend to be a Lincoln scholar, but he knows a lot, and has a strong emotional bond with his subject.

Several times in the course of the interview, Damron was brought to tears as he spoke of Lincoln -- not a perfect man by any means, Damron said, but "his heart was right. He was there to give. Lincoln had the great habit of forgiveness. He wasn't soft, but compassionate."

He finds young students relate to Lincoln and aren't afraid to engage him.

On arriving at Sun 'N Lake Elementary, for example, he was walking down a corridor when a young girl passed him. "Are you Abraham Lincoln?" asked the girl, taking in the stove pipe hat, the black frock coat and beard.

"Yes," Damron said.

"I thought you were dead," said the girl.

Damron said he gets that a lot.

He also fields many questions.

Children mostly want to know if Lincoln had children -- yes, he had four sons, three of whom died before reaching adulthood.

Did he have a dog? Yes.

Did he have a favorite song? Yes, and according to Damron it was "Dixie," although he was also partial to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Lincoln, Damron said, weighed 140 pounds, wore size 14 shoes and kept things such as notes in his hat.

Lincoln's voice was said to be high and thin, but could be heard at great distances.

He loved to laugh, although he was melancholy man.

According to Damron, Lincoln was never baptized or joined a church. He had planned on joining the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. on Easter Day, 1865, but was assassinated the Thursday before.

About the assassination, Damron said Lincoln did have a dream about being assassinated.

In the dream he woke up and was walking downstairs at the White House. He heard a commotion and asked someone what was going on. The man told him that the president had been shot.

In the dream Lincoln went back upstairs and back to bed.

Damron has not yet left town.

He is visiting Walker Memorial Academy today and will be bringing Lincoln to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church of Avon Park at 1410 West Avon Blvd. for a special vespers program 7 p.m. Saturday night. The public is welcome.