PLAINFIELD – It would be understatement to assert Alonzo Watford was a trailblazer at Butler University.
By 2020s standards, what he did is inspiring. By 1920s standards, it is . . . well, it is incalculable.
“Lord knows what we don’t know,” Elizabeth Watford Mitchell said. “We know it was difficult times. He had that true grit, he had that resilience. And he did almost the impossible.”
Mitchell, 67, of Bloomington, is Watford’s granddaughter. Amid the summer’s social upheaval, we met at Johnson’s Coffee Shop at the Shops at Perry Crossing, owned by Alonzo Johnson, 50, a great-grandson of Watford.