photo by: Frank Janzen/Contributed Photo

Leo Beuerman sold pencils out of a handmade wooden cart in downtown Lawrence during the mid-20th century.

A California songwriter has created a music video about one of Lawrence’s “Distinguished Citizens”: Leo Beuerman, a man who sold pencils from a cart in downtown Lawrence.

Though Beuerman, who suffered from the rare genetic condition osteogenesis imperfecta, was only a little over 3 feet tall and couldn’t walk, he drove a specially designed tractor from his family’s farm to downtown. The tractor had a pulley system that he used to lower himself to the street in a red wooden cart. Beuerman, who also had difficulty hearing and speaking, parked the cart on the corner of Eighth and Massachusetts streets to sell pencils in the 1960s. A short documentary about his life was nominated for an Academy Award.

photo by: Journal-World File

This Leo Beuerman plaque is a the northeast corner of Eighth and Massachusetts.

A bronze plaque honoring Beuerman as a “Lawrence Distinguished Citizen” is at the northeast corner of Eighth and Massachusetts streets. It contains a quote from Beuerman that reads, “Remember me — I’m that little man gone blind. I used to sell pencils on the street corner.”

Beuerman died in 1974 at age 72.

Douglas Weed, of Napa, California, told the Journal-World that shortly after Beuerman died he read an article about him in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“I was very moved by the article, and was inspired to immediately write a song about him, titled ‘Little Man Gone Blind,'” Weed said in an email. But the song sat for “51 years in a pile,” until recently when the advent of AI assisted music creation allowed him to turn it “into actual music that sounds as if it came from a professional studio.”

Weed then created a video of the song, featuring historic photos of Beuerman in downtown Lawrence.

Weed said he musically revisited Beuerman’s life to see “his memory refreshed.”