Palisades fire destroys everything Tommy Hawkins cherishes

We shouldn't let Tommy Hawkins' story and miracles rise in the flames without proper narrative. Layla is not his 39-year-old wife either.

On January 7, the hell ravaged in Palisades claimed thousands of houses and several lives. It eliminates wealth, hope, memories and future. It destroyed the Las Flores Canyon in Malibu, where Tommy and Layla lived for 32 years in a house with mountain and sea views.

Over the years, they had several fires, some approaching and some even causing some damage. But this time, since Tommy no longer exists, Laila has left solos, art, music and awards, license plates, trophys and trophys and family scrapbooks alone, hell allows no exceptions, without paying attention to legendary legends, it consumes the legend it is consuming. .

'eagle'

When he died in August 2017, at the age of 80, he was properly noted around Los Angeles, but no one lowered the flag to the half-staff of Malibu City Hall. He used to be a star, long-standing movement and media presence, but his generation stood out from the focus of the crowd or died.

He came out of Parker High, Chicago. He was one of 25 black kids who sent the Chicago program, now Parker, and now Robeson High, to start integrating schools. He would grow to 6-foot-5, love playing basketball, and use Jackie Robinson to break the color barriers with the Dodgers. His mother showed him stories about the matter and told him that if Robinson could do it, he could, too.

He became a high-speed reserve basketball star. His specialty is rebound. He can pick tea cups from the top of the rebound.

In 1955, he sat down with his mother to narrow down the list of universities he was visiting, each year longing for him to wear a basketball jersey. His first trip was to South Bend, Indiana and Notre Dame Cathedral. After he walked around the campus lake and sat in the shadow of huge old trees, he called his mother and told her to cancel the other 9 trips.

For three years (freshman is not qualified), he packed his old wild house with squeaky bleach seats and mud floors. He is all over the United States. Notre Dame is a rugby school that began to attract people's attention by basketball. He scored a lot, but he rebounded more. He treats every shot as a long-lost brother. When he finished, he knocked down 1,318 rebounds. That is still the school record, and it has been 66 years now.

He claimed he had never had a race incident at Notre Dame, perhaps forgot his time with several other students to go to the pizza place in South Bend and was denied service. His friend walked out with him. Football star Paul Hornung, who was already at school, had heard of a golden boy who came to Hawkins' room, knocked on the door, and told Hawkins that they were going to pizza. Hornung takes him to the same place that refuses Hawkins’ service and stares at the owners, who sits down at the pizza restaurant.

Lakers forward Tommy Hawkins shot at Boston Celtics Big Bill Russell during the NBA final in April 1968.

(Associated Press)

The professionals overall picked his third place, and he went to play for the Minneapolis Lakers, who soon became the Los Angeles Lakers. UCLA basketball and USC football games said that at that time, the NBA in Los Angeles was no bigger than that. But the Lakers worked hard. Soon, there were people like Tommy Hawkins and Elgin Baylor riding in convertibles on downtown Los Angeles streets to encourage people to see them through the megaphones Games in the sports stadium. Try to imagine Kobe and Shaq doing this.

Hawkins was traded to the Cincinnati Royals and played there from 1962 to 1966 before returning to the Lakers to Lakers for the final three seasons in the NBA , ended in 1969.

He quickly became a Laker, and he became a media figure in the Los Angeles area. He was NBC’s first black basketball announcer, doing a lot of local TV, where his own radio show played jazz and talked about it, becoming a ritual master at big events such as wooden award dinners and Mrs. USC-Notre of the Year Football game lunch. Eventually, he served as communications director for the Dodgers for 18 years and counted as close friends Peter O'Malley and Tommy Lasorda.

A day that will never be forgotten

Layla and Tommy Hawkins are in an undated family photo.

(Provided by the Hawkins Family)

Layla Hawkins woke up on January 7 to fears she had previously encountered. On a windy day, there were horrible fires nearby, radio and television warnings. But she was spared before.

That morning, five members of a real estate company came to take pictures. She wanted to keep the house for her daughter, but her daughter recalled the fire in the past and they didn't want anything to do with it. Layla talks with her trusted friend, consultant, Peter O'Malley and his colleague Brent Shyer to help prepare for the steps for sale.

When the wind how to scream, a friend called her and the latest news of the fire, the real estate people finished, packed up and set off. Layla later learned that the wind kicked so fast with the fire shutting down that they barely landed it to sunset and entered Santa Monica where their offices were.

By late afternoon, she received a crazy call from her friend Susie, who was in two canyons in Topanga. This message is no longer a suggestion. This is a requirement. go out.

She quickly sprayed the bushes she could reach, saw a neighbor on the roof doing the same, then grabbed her wallet and opened the door and door so that the fire department could use. After all, she is a firefighter.

She remembered that she was moving too slowly. Her recent knee replacement almost slowed her down.

“The fire is everywhere,” she said. “It's coming. It's like one of those 3D movies. I can't explain it.”

“I've been talking to Tommy. He's been there for nearly 40 years since he's married. I told him not to let me die like this. The fire was suddenly there. It's like someone throwing the atomic bomb.”

She arrived at Mulholland Drive and was still trying to look back at her house.

“I know nothing can survive,” she said.

go home

A ceramic starfish that Layla and Tommy Hawkins once placed love notes on each other was one of several things that could be recycled after the Palisades fire destroyed their Malibu home in January 2025.

(Provided by the Hawkins Family.)

Layla doesn't want friends or neighbors to send photos of her rubble. She will go back, but don't. How many weeks were that.

“I drove there alone,” she said. “My house is fourth on the left. I had to count to make sure. Everything looks like the Gaza picture you see. I talked to Tommy again. I told me He, I'm glad he didn't see this there.”

She knew she was in the right place. Tommy Hawkins' basketball hoop stands high, with straight rims and nets still in place. You could have kicked out some pieces, shot and heard Swish. It will still be there.

Nothing hurts nothing.

There are plenty of trophys and plaques, a huge and valuable collection of artworks, wedding pictures, one of the better collections of jazz music in the city, and valuable computer files. He started writing a second book, and after his death, O'Malley and Shryer worked with Layla on how to finish and publish it.

But it disappeared, almost with everything else.

She found a starfish statue. It is ceramic, survived. It was originally intended to invest money and loose coins.

“We use it to leave each other’s love notes,” she said.

She said they were all avid readers. Books are everywhere in the house.

“Tommy used to joke that if anything happened to the Library of Congress, we could fill it in again,” she said.

Her reward ended when she realized all her debris sifted out of the bloody hand. She returned to her car and felt the symbolism of Tommy's surviving basketball and saved the ceramic statue and the slightly burnt metal statue of the trumpeter.

Almost all her belongings and possessions disappeared throughout her life.

Life now

Tommy Hawkins' basketball basketball is a few things standing in his home after Palisades opened fire.

(Provided by the Hawkins Family)

“I go to the FEMA office every day,” Layla said.

She is very close to not needed.

Her house will be available for $3.5 million. In the Los Angeles real estate market, her sea views and Malibu address, the prices seem reasonable and likely to be fast. The insurance she owns now only pays $600,000, with its remaining mortgage of $250,000. Now no one can really tell the value of this land, nor will one end up avoiding the construction of an area where wind and fire have always been a threat. Friends tried to gather around her, including setting up a GoFundMe account.

She died in 2017 and was 22 years younger than Hawkins. She is in Persian. When her family (part of the Iranian government Shah) was on the side of the Iranian revolution in 1979.

She came to the United States, graduated from Louisiana, received her degree in mechanical engineering, and eventually moved to Los Angeles, where she found jobs at various photo agencies and studios in Santa Monica.

That was where she met Hawkins.

“It's really love at first sight,” she said.

Hawkins once sat on his desk and typed a sentence on a piece of paper, defining her feelings as her. He handed it to her, and it said, “It's not just a feeling. It's a force.”

That piece of paper may be her most precious property.

It burned on January 7th.