Cheryl Diaz Meyers / DMN
A walking stick carved with the Ten Commandments by Dallas artist Roosevelt Wilkerson was presented by President George W. Bush to Pope Benedict XVI.
DALLAS - Roosevelt Wilkerson works alone in a cluttered one-room apartment atop an East Dallas laundry room.
The surroundings may be humble, but Mr. Wilkerson's fame now extends to the Vatican.
On Saturday, President Bush presented Pope Benedict XVI with one of Mr. Wilkerson's hand-carved walking sticks inscribed with the Ten Commandments.
"I'm just dumbfounded," said Mr. Wilkerson, 62. "It's a big honor to me. I don't know what to say."
President Bush, who owns two of the sticks, included one of Mr. Wilkerson's creations in a gift exchange with the pope. Reporters covering the meeting heard Mr. Bush describe the stick as "a piece of art by a former homeless man from Texas ... Dallas."
"The Ten Commandments?" the pope asked.
"The Ten Commandments, yes, sir," the president replied.
Mr. Wilkerson briefly caught a TV news report Saturday on the president's visit, but he didn't hear the exchange about his stick.
"This is the biggest step I've made in my life," said Mr. Wilkerson, who attends St. Paul United Methodist Church in Dallas. "God does things in mysterious ways."
Mr. Bush received his first stick from Mr. Wilkerson a decade ago when he was Texas governor.
Susan Nowlin of Dallas, who attended SMU with Laura Bush, gave it to him. After he became president, Ms. Nowlin presented him with a second stick.
Ms. Nowlin has befriended Mr. Wilkerson, a ninth-grade dropout who was homeless until a few years ago. Today, she ships Mr. Wilkerson's 5-foot-long sticks to people around the country. They sell for $75 each.
"It may be time to raise the price," Ms. Nowlin said Saturday.
She told Mr. Wilkerson about three weeks ago that the U.S. State Department had called, saying President Bush wanted to present the pope with one of his sticks.
"He was very calm about it," Ms. Nowlin said. "He's very calm about everything."
Mr. Wilkerson, who grew up in Dallas and attended Booker T. Washington High School, said he has carved his entire life.
He began inscribing the Ten Commandments on ash and cedar walking sticks about 15 years ago. The first five Commandments are carved lengthwise around the top of the stick. The second five are carved on the bottom half. He paints the letters red, black or green, but the stick remains a natural off-white color.
"God gave me this gift," Mr. Wilkerson said. "He put the gift in my hand."
He sits on a plaid couch in his efficiency apartment on Gaston Avenue near Baylor University Medical Center. Most of the light comes from a single bulb in a floor lamp, sans shade.
A window air-conditioning unit and floor fan create a steady hum that makes it hard to hear Mr. Wilkerson's soft voice.
Carving, he said, relaxes him.
"I'm in my own little world," he said. "I'm just meditating."
He said he can create two sticks a day sometimes more. He'll unplug the phone if calls disrupt his work.
"Sometimes the adrenalin flows," he said. "I'm kind of a hermit."
He derives his only income from the sale of his sticks. He doesn't own a car and eschews the bus.
"I can walk to where I'm going faster," Mr. Wilkerson said.
He collects wood for his sticks from the Trinity River banks in southern Dallas.
He shears off the bark with a paring knife, then sands the wood to a smooth surface. Next, he painstakingly carves the letters of the Ten Commandments, in block style, using a 6-inch carving tool that resembles a screwdriver.
He has a well-worn photo album with pictures of some of his famous clients, including former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach. Gov. Rick Perry and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk also own his sticks.
"They're all over the place," Mr. Wilkerson said.
He knows people like his creations. For him, that's reward enough.
"I like to do it for people," he said. "It's something special."
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