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The boy with the paper route who answered to the nickname “Billy” knew what he wanted in life. But he had no idea how he’d get there.

“I knew, if things worked out, that I’d like to be a lawyer one day,” Lou Stokes told us during a wide-ranging interview back in 2013.

Things, of course, worked out for Stokes, in ways he said exceeded his dreams.

And now, everyone can share in the journey, thanks to his new autobiography, aptly titled “The Gentleman from Ohio.”

The book was written late in Stokes’ life (he died last August at the age of 90), and chronicles his rise from near abject poverty as a young boy to becoming a political legend in his hometown.

Born in Cleveland in 1925, Stokes’ early life was spent in a home with no heat or indoor plumbing. His father died when he was just a boy, and his mother worked in wealthy people’s homes to support Lou and his younger brother, Carl (who would grow up to become the first African-American to lead a major city when he was elected mayor of Cleveland in 1967.)

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source: fox8cleveland.com

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