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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second part of a two-part series. CLICK HERE for Part 1.
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WACO, Texas — A Waco shoeshiner is uplifting spirits and he has a few more words of wisdom to pass along.
Silent Maynor is all about making people happy.
"I just try to follow the golden rule," Maynor told 25 News. "I try to treat everybody right."
Maynor has dealt with his share of discrimination.
"I don't dwell on that stuff. If that's what you look for that's what you are going to find and I don't look for it," Maynor said.
As a young man, he would overcome a traumatizing industrial accident that would cost him his right leg but that's not what defines him.
"Every day I'm alive or every week, every month is a celebration," Maynor said. "I just treat people like I want to be treated."
As a shoeshiner, he sets up his booth at the Hilton and other venues like the Extraco Event Center in Waco where even the rodeo clowns 'step right up' for a shine to both the soles of their shoes and the soul they carry through life.
He inspires people from all walks of life.
"Even Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was here," Maynor recalled. "He stepped off this elevator right here next to my stand and I called his name just like I knew him my whole life. I was like 'Clarence Thomas!' Even the guy that played the Fonz, 'ol Henry Winkler, real down to earth fellow."
No matter who he reaches, he's there to be a guiding light just like he does as the deacon for the Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church.
"Some people just want somebody to talk to. So, I've had just a couple of people I was like, them shoes, they still look good from last time I shined them," Maynor told 25 News.
