Who is Lester Simmons from The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural and what is their importance?

Lester Simmons appears in the story, The 11:59. He is a retired porter for the Pullman train cars, and he enjoys hanging out with the rookie porters, talking about the exciting times when the porters formed the first black union. After telling one such story, however, Lester hears a train whistle at exactly 11:59. Lester knows this is the whistle of the fabled death train and he decides to fight from being taken. Locking himself inside of his apartment, he tries to hide, but the train still finds him. In the end, he dies of a heart attack. When his body is found, he has his gold watch, which stopped at exactly 11:59.