Photos from Diana Nyad's post Key West recently lost one of its grandest treasures. Charismatic in his white linen suits, David Wolkowsky made it to age 99 and, to his last day, continued to charm with his stories of evenings carousing with Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams.
David was a man of letters and art by heart, but a builder by profession, having restored much of famous Duval Street and Ernest Hemingway’s favorite saloon Captain Tony’s, to name a couple of his city projects.
Lucky I was to lounge in his art-rich home in Key West. One day I was snooping through his books and came across an original Babar edition, the little elephant series my mother read to me as a child. Babar’s original writer and illustrator, Jean de Brunhoff’s son Laurent took over the series in the ’30’s, when Jean died, and David became a good friend of Laurent’s. David saw my delight in thumbing through “The Story of Babar” and he gave me the book, which I count among my most delicious possessions. David attended the screening of the documentary of my Cuba Swim story, “The Other Shore”, at the Tropicana and had sent by messenger a handwritten note to my cottage that afternoon. The note was actually addressed to Bonnie. He called her “the dark horse”. How apt.
Whenever I go to Key West, and am actually here right now, I will dearly miss those
languorous afternoons talking literature with David. Key West misses him terribly. And so do I. ... See more
