The Real Life Of A Lineman In The Contractor World

– Guest Commentary By Michael Gray, owner, Gray’s Power Supply – 

Barney was born into the American dream family. His father married his mother and then later came home as a decorated World War II veteran, opened the first grocery store in Sardis, then a clothing store and began raising a family. Through school Barney (Eddie) worked in the family business. He graduated from Sardis, then went to Northwest Mississippi Community College, where he completed his degree. 

He took a job at MP&L (later to become Entergy) as an apprentice where he quickly moved through the ranks. Eddie also chose to follow in his father’s footsteps by joining the National Guard to serve our country. During that time he married, had children and lived the happiest part of his life.

On February 9th, Mississippi got hit with one of the worst natural disasters the state had ever faced, the “1994 ice storm.” The storm affected 100 percent of north Mississippi, and Eddie at this time was a newly appointed manager of the Vicksburg office covering the heart of our delta. 

He was in charge of coordinating crews from across the country. Contractors, other utilities, farmers and volunteers all were tied to Eddie in some form or fashion. He knew the system, the problems and was a huge part of a team that worked the long tireless weeks to make sure every customer had their lights back on. With that type of responsibility Eddie gained more recognition in the company and was promoted to a regional manager. 

Moving up through the ranks in the line trade I feel is slightly different than most. As line work goes, when your boss tells you to do something, you do it. In many cases, lives are on the line. So it becomes normal not to be questioned or challenged. This does not always translate to your home life and becomes challenging at times.

In life, there are multiple paths we encounter. Sometimes the ones everyone says are the wrong path turn out to be the path they are meant to be on, even when they are filled with betrayal, heartache, regret, disappointment and humility. When your pastor says, “God says to forgive,” we agree, but when things happen in some men’s lives that others forgive, it’s still hard for them to forgive themselves. Some men try to recover and many do. Eddie’s hardest struggle was living with the mistakes he made in his early years.

Shortly after this promotion, he lost his job, then his marriage. With the dedication he had given power lines he only knew one type of work. Eddie chose to get back into his hooks. He took a job as a contract lineman. Unlike a utility lineman, contract linemen travel all over the country building lines for whatever utility needs help. This type of work is common and needed to the infrastructure. 

Without contract linemen, the utility would struggle with upgrades and disasters. The downside of contractors is that they are temporary workers in some cases, which causes some of their workforce not to have the best morals. With this crowd Eddie discovered a way to let all of his regrets go away for a few brief moments. This new escape allowed him to replace the life of dedication to his family, friends, utility and responsibility with brief moments of euphoria. 

This lifestyle only got worse. The home visits turned from weeks to months. The contractors he worked for had little tolerance for this behavior so he lost that job.

 As you all can see the writing on the wall, Eddie ended up at the airport (county jail in Panola) for bad checks. At this point in time, it was the first for a lot of things. Eddie had never had more than a speeding ticket. Here he was sitting in county, looking at five years over his head. Back then the convicts wore desert storm camouflage instead of green stripes.

Even with all the world’s regret on his shoulders, he moved through life like he genuinely cared for the people he talked to. I now can only imagine that sorrow and depression he must have been going through. With all that, no matter the person, race, religion or age, he spoke to you like he was interviewing to be your friend. He never talked about the bad in people, even the ones that turned him onto the things that led him to where he was. He told stories of his life experiences, ones that showed the world in a light that made it a beautiful place full of opportunity, adventure and forgiveness. 

He spoke about God like he had walked beside Him. He quoted scripture. He made you understand that we are all His children and forgiveness is necessary. I know now of his time as a deacon in Vicksburg. With his understanding of the world and what is in the next, along with his charisma and confidence, Eddie would forever spend the rest of his life fighting the demons of regret and few people ever saw it.

The life of a lineman is full of opportunity that most do not have and even more will not understand, so I’ll do my best to explain. 

Linemen climb poles with spikes that only penetrate the pole a half-inch with a safety belt that simply wraps around the pole as they carry tools up to do the work. They hold high-voltage electricity in their hands with thin rubber gloves between them and the lightning trying to escape. They fly from under helicopters hanging from a  half-inch rope. They step out on lines hundreds of feet in the air onto fully energized lines and let the electricity surround them. Then there is the money. Linemen make more than most trades. Money that was so good when you heard about it, you thought it was a lie. Money that you or your family never had, or even the opportunity to have, was something that seemed like a dream.

Now here was when I met Eddie: April 3, 1999 in the Panola County jail, cell unit 32-C, and Eddie was selling a dream to a 17-year-old kid who had just dropped out of school and was serving six months for stealing a car. It was a dream that by the end of the summer of picking up trash on every road in Panola County, he had me convinced that line work was what I was meant to do with my life. 

Eddie’s stories taught me that it didn’t matter where you came from, your creed or color, the right of way (ROW) only needed one thing in you: character. If you had the right character, you would naturally succeed in life. At that point in my life, I had no character, no future, no goals, no plans, no education and no dreams. Eddie taught me that if you were willing to put in the hours, do the work and willing to learn, there was a place for you on that ROW.

I feel that God knows what path you take before you take it. When all others are telling you that you are going the wrong way, God knows where you’re going. I feel God sent Eddie to that cell block to spend the summer with me, to show me there is a place for me in the world that didn’t care if I stole a car, didn’t care if I came from a trailer, had little education or even if I found power lines through stories from a guy that wrote bad checks and made worse decisions. Eddie made me feel like nothing was out of my reach. He made everyone feel that way, but only if you needed that in your life. At that point in my life I needed it more than most.

I’m not saying that Eddie was the reason for all that I have accomplished in life. I give that praise to God. I will say without the things that Eddie went through, good and bad, he would have never been able to tell the stories that led me in the direction that built my character. 

Eddie passed May 3, 2026, at 3 a.m. in a hospital surrounded by strangers, all alone, with carpal tunnel in his hands from years of rubber gloves, no hair left on his shinbones and bad knees from years of climbing poles and cancer in his belly from what I guess was being as wild as you could imagine. 

Rest in peace old friend, I’ll see you down the ROW on the next job.