LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – The house on Grand Avenue is showing its age.
The roof is sagging, the paint is peeling and only a historical marker notes the memories it holds for the neighborhood, for the city and for the world.
It was home to the Clay family, whose son Cassius would become one of the most recognized faces in the world.
Lawrence Montgomery has lived on Grand Avenue for decades and still lives directly across the street. He vividly remembers young Cassius.
"He's just like a little brother – just like a little brother. I'm eight years older than he and of course, he's running up and down the street all the time – in and out of our houses," he said.
He was a big brother and Ali often refers to Lawrence as his first boss. Cassius was a very handy babysitter for the Montgomery's three children.
"My wife and I worked and the ironic thing about it, is that he didn't charge any money for babysitting. All he required is baloney in the refrigerator," he said.
Lawrence watched the neighborhood kid grow into a young man and learn the ropes of amateur boxing. The friendship continued. Cassius was always around the house.
"When I used to come home at night, when I worked at the Postal Service, he'd have me to put my hands up where he would spar into my hands. And he told me then that he was gonna be the heavyweight champion of the world. And I said, "Oh boy, you're crazy. There's no way. But he proved me wrong," he said.
That proof would come ten years later, when Clay would knock out Sonny Liston in Miami. Montgomery calls it the happiest day of his life.
"When he said, 'I ruled the world. I changed the world,' – I thought then, you sure did. You changed by life," Lawrence said.
Everything changed that night, but their friendship remains. Even the last time he saw Ali in Louisville, they had a special moment.
"And when he saw me, he jumped up and he had this Parkinson's disease and he jumped and said, Lawrence, my man," he said.
Ali doesn't speak much these days. It takes a lot of energy. But the sight of an old friend brought out the old Ali and Montgomery is working to help the Clay family house on Grand Avenue to have a future as a museum.
"I owned the house next door to him and I'm negotiating with the buyer. They want to tear that house down, which is a stone home and they want to tear it down and move Muhammad's house over about 8 feet," Lawrence said.
The extra space would provide parking for a permanent museum and historical site at Ali's childhood home.
Montgomery never left his neighborhood or his old friends.
"I just feel honored, grateful that he was a good friend of mine," he said.
Lawrence Montgomery and Muhammad Ali were "grand" brothers on the street where they lived.
Montgomery was a former city alderman, who accompanied Dr. Martin Luther King and Jackie Robinson in the March on Frankfort in 1964.
He is also the brother of Senator Georgia Davis Powers.
