There was always humor in our home...always...even when things weren't going right. My Mother always sang in the kitchen and my Daddy always told jokes. So we grew up with the knowledge that even when everything wasn't happy, we could still be happy. My youngest brother got my Dad's humor and my oldest brother got my Mother's gift of song. I just sat back and listened. I do know three chords on the guitar from watching Daddy sit and pick out "Wildwood Flower" on Saturday evening. Wish I knew more; but, its enough to say I learned.

I also learned how to play checkers on Sunday evenings; only after the comics were read and he took his evening nap. I learned how good green onions and radishes taste right straight out of the ground and how little piglets look when they're born. I watched him help my brother build a minature barn for a school project with a running porch and a working door, so I also learned that you never half-way do anything. If you're going to do it at all, you may as well put your heart and soul into it.

He taught me it's useless to worry 'cause it won't change a thing and that the best thing to do is let God handle it, because He does it a whole lot better than we do anyway. I learned that prayer works.

My Daddy was such a gentle man but the temper showed when someone wasn't kind to his wife and kids. He was very protective of us but still let us learn from our mistakes.

He was a hard worker; but on the weekends, found the time to take his kids camping and fishing. Some of my most wonderful memories are fishing with him (at the crack of dawn!!) and hearing him go on and on about how big the fish was that I just caught, and how good it was going to taste when Mama "fried it up!!"

At the old home place, there's a huge oak tree in the back yard. When I was born, he planted an acorn he got from his brother's house in Baton Rouge. Mama said he planted it, watered it and said a prayer over it so it would grow tall and proud, for his baby girl. That was MY tree!!! My brothers and I have climbed it and sat on it's huge limbs to overlook our neighborhood, and some of us have fallen out of it too!!...

I bet he knows that his only grandson has climbed it too. The only regret I have is that my son never got to meet his Paw Paw; but then again, when my son was three, I was showing him pictures in the photo album and he was slowly turning the pages. He stopped on a picture of Daddy and I asked him if he knew who he was. He said he didn't know his name but he saw him on his way down to be born!!!! So, I think my Daddy knows he has a grandson named after him.

I still miss him and will always think of him when it rains, caused he liked to watch it. I think of him when I have a problem and wonder what advice he would have given me. I think of him every New Year's Eve on his birthday, and sometimes every day.

He left behind two daughters, two sons, two granddaughters, and a wife who was with him for 28 years. We loved him dearly and still do.

He also left behind a love for the outdoors, jokes we still remember, and wonderful memories.

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