news-record.com

In the new year, the phone won’t ring at the News & Record or at the Greensboro Historical Museum with the caller announcing: “This is Old Man Lisk.”

L.E. Lisk Jr., also known as Junior Lisk, died quietly in early December at age 89. His life sometimes was on the wrong side of the law. But he’ll be best remembered not for transgression but for a brain that perked with ideas that often became inventions.

He invented Lisk fishing lures, and his wife, Eva, ran the company that made them starting in 1954. They often received letters from fishermen who swore fish rushed to bite Lisk lures.

A great compliment came from federal judge Hiram Ward, addressing the court while a nervous Lisk stood before him in the early 1980s.

“I’m a fisherman,” the judge said. “Between his lures and my expertise, we fooled a lot of fish.”

Ward went on to say that Lisk failed to fool feds when he made $100,000 worth of counterfeit bills. Lisk insisted he was framed, despite co-owning the print shop that made the phony money, which was hidden under a highway bridge.

He was embarrassed by that episode, which sent him to prison for 22 months, but he seemed proud of a hitch pulled in the 1940s for bootlegging.

Bootleggers were romantic figures. Lisk loved telling about how he arrived in prison as his friend and fellow moonshiner, Junior Johnson, was ending his sentence. Johnson went on to become a NASCAR legend.

Lisk was pals with another ex-convict, David Marshall (Carbine) Williams, who served time for killing a lawman during a moonshine raid in 1921. He showed a knack for working on guns in prison and honed the skills there that lead to the creation of the M1 carbine rifle carried by millions of World War II and Korea War infantrymen.

Paroled in 1929, Williams also worked on a submarine gun, and was helped by Lisk. Some stories say Williams quit the project declaring he was tired of killing. Another story says after Williams’ death in 1975 he left the gun’s plans with Lisk, who completed it.

Lisk boasted the weapon fired 2,700 rounds a minute. Nations tested it. Nothing came of it, although Lisk said he rejected $10 million from the North Koreans.

Lisk donated to the Greensboro Historical Museum the machine gun’s prototype.

Museum staff member Jon Zachman says the Lisk collection also includes plastic bricks filled with sand which Lisk used to build a house near Oak Ridge.

He experimented early on with solar energy and later a water-purification system.

Lisk said that in the early 1960s he invented an electric car with a battery that recharged while rolling. He said North Carolina Gov. Terry Sanford told him Big Oil would never allow it. Read all about it in Lisk’s autobiography, “I Tell It Liked It Used to Be.”

Bill Moore, retired historical museum director, said the Lisk collection includes the belt buckle actor Jimmy Stewart wore playing Williams in the 1952 movie, “Carbine Williams.”

Stewart gave the buckle to Williams, who gave it to Lisk.

“He was very creative, always interesting to talk to and had lots of charisma,” Moore says of Lisk. “I always enjoyed his company.”

Lisk quit school after the 8th grade and had many jobs over his lifetime, including driving a city bus. His museum collection includes the metal coin changer he wore on his belt.

By his late 80s, he could no longer drive. His devoted wife, Eva, who had at one time supervised 13 employees in the lure business, died in 2002.

Lisk still called the newspaper and museum, but not as often.

He explained in a 2002 News & Record interview why he became an inventor. He was so poor growing up, he said, “If I had anything, I had to invent it.” 

Contact Jim Schlosser at 601-9879 or beale1@clearwire.net