I never got to know Otis as well as I knew his brother-in-law Freddy Brown,a dear friend of mine from 1947, the year that I moved on to Locust Avenue in McGary Addition from High Street in Weston. However, I admired Otis' love of local history, his commitments to historical research and historic preservation, and his insightful letters to the editor of The Weston Democrat. His writings about the aviator Louis Bennett, Jr. were especially meaningful for me inasmuch as I lived near the Louis Bennett Memorial Library from 1943 until moving to Locust Avenue and played football on the lawn just to the south of the beautiful library, one of Weston's architectural jewels. Interestingly, the first and only time that I spoke with Otis was at the library when I went there in 2007 to give to the library a book or two in the memory of my parents, Forest Reger Allen and Virginia Allen. At that time I complimented Otis on his work and asked him what he was working on at the moment. He informed me that he was doing research that he hoped would shed some light on the history of the African-American slaves in Lewis County County after emancipation had taken place. He was at the library that day with Bob Conley.