Buddy Egan was a man you could easily admire. He experienced more than most – a treasured family, wife, four daughters, two sons – each who marveled with him all the days of his life. He was a hero/purple heart veteran who walked Normandy and stood atop the Eagle’s Nest resting on the hilltops where Hitler once looked out over the Bavarian Alps. There were plenty of stories from his journey, but the influence may have been expressed the most in his eighties as he was known and beloved by many who knew him as “The Turtleman.”
Buddy passed away Sunday, June 28th. We were sitting at Red Lobster when his daughter Tracy got the call. They had been preparing for months, but these moments are always gripping. There was a half-moon that night and clouds from the summer showers were breaking up in the night sky like wayward spirits and even though this extraordinary soul is gone, his influence will inspire generations to come.
Buddy simply ran out of gas at the end of a long road. I met him almost 15 years ago and he was in his seventies then and up till last year, he still donned his best clothes on Friday night and went dancing at the Outdoorsman Club on Eastman Road in his hometown of Kingsport. He was a small man and when he wore his taps, he never hesitated to take the dance floor with or without a partner anytime the music was playing.
The turtle hat he wore was something he picked up a Cracker Barrel along his travels. His parade of grandchildren loved that hat and he wore it everywhere he went. The man in the turtle hat re-traveled the roads he walked during the war with his daughter Dawn several years ago and took a trip to Canada to meet a man they met on the airplane who lived in Eganville. He made several new friends on a cruise in the Caribbean a few years back and (in his hat) won the ships “best looking legs” contest in his mid-eighties.
Tracy Strickler introduced her father several years ago and like so many others I fell in love with the man that was “never in a hurry.” His detailed stories and fascination with Nature led to plenty of conversations between the two of us and I think he’s the one who influenced me to become a Dr. Enuf addict. I figured if this 80 year old had so much kick – I wanted it to.
One of my favorite images of Buddy is the magazine cover we shot for a senior’s magazine celebrating Grandparents Day. He had the hat and his two grandchildren, Abbi and Evan who were in single digits at the time together smiling underneath his fragrant Wysteria trees that grew in the backyard.
Tracy, Dawn, Joy, Connie and Gary had been planning for this moment for several weeks. Buddy hung up his dancing shoes a little over a year ago and never returned. The past several weeks had seen a decline in his health and the conversation began to discuss the funeral. Tracy loaned me a collection of cassette tapes by the ‘Egan Brothers’ – a gospel group that Buddy and his brothers performed with in the sixties. I worked for a couple of nights to digitize the library of earthy Southern Gospel music and made a CD for the funeral. I’m also presenting that collection here online too because it’s an inspiring collection of traditional family music and Buddy is the warm bass singer you hear in all the tracks.
Click here to hear the collection…
The night the family received friends there was a line that was three hours long of the various people Buddy had loved throughout the years. There were plenty of older friends and a crowd of grandchildren. The CD was playing the Egan Gospel music and as I made my way to the open casket, there was Buddy with the turtle hat, but that wasn’t the only unique thing about Charlie.
That night, I heard hundreds of stories about Buddy and watched a volume of pictures pass by on a TV screen of long life worth envy. Some folks called him “Doc,” others called him “Buddy” and others knew him as Charlie. One of the woman said she used to be Buddy’s girlfriend and said he was always short, but somehow, I imagined Buddy liked it like that – at 5 foot 2, he probably stood right where he wanted. The final song for the evening gathering was most appropriate too for this wonderful soul as “Keep on The Sunny Side” sent everyone along their way.
The funeral was equally warm as this family was drawn together celebrating a life full of riches. As the June bugs buzzed the graves at Oak Hill on a Wednesday morning, there was a line of dressed honor guards and one solider standing vigil next to a pair of boots, a rifle and helmet facing the tent that stood next to an open grave, a wooden casket and bright new American flag draped across the top.
A military funeral is a nobel departure. The uniform, flags, gun salute and Taps by an old oak tree seemed to bring about a greater respect for Buddy. His comrades had poignant and touching scripts for the graveside. His family and friends were consoled by the large gathering and realization Buddy wouldn’t want anyone to be sad. I took a lot of pictures and saw grief flashing before the eyes of the family, but also saw joy by the graveside as the Egan grandchildren ran from tree to tree gathering acorns and playing with the low lying limbs.
Click here for funeral moments.
We celebrated another wonderful life last week. There’s great sorry in the loss of Charlie Egan, but I’m convinced the days he had walking this Earth are nothing compared to the influence, the stories, the memories and the love that will carry its way forward into the lives of his family. Each one has taken their own treasure from ‘Buddy’s’ circus of joy and this man’s life has surely changed the world.