KILGOROUND
LINDA BALLARD

B.S. "Buddy" Barber was a man fully alive," wrote his nephew, Patrick Russell. "He was cut out of that Old Texas Rock that is now difficult to find. All of us, his friends and family, are sad to see him go. The tears he leaves behind stop only when we look back and remember happy times; his boisterous laugh, the way he loved children, dogs, goats, cows and horses and listened to what they had to say; the way he shaved every morning of his adult life and smelled clean and fresh; the way he believed in and loved his family and (in his eyes) could do no wrong."

Buddy was a graduate of Kilgore High School and attended Kilgore College. In his youth, according to family members, he was a pretty good team roper, though he always insisted he was better in the pasture. "He could spot a sick cow a mile away, especially if he was the buyer or if someone else was doing the doctoring; otherwise he was

smart enough to keep quiet about it. His thrift knew no bounds, another quality which made friends laugh. But, Buddy was complex," said Russell.

"He loved life," said Diana Ponder. He and his first cousin, James, were very close throughout school. "And they loved to work with the cattle. They were a different kind themselves and Buddy loved to help people - especially the underdog," she said.

"Buddy moved away from Kilgore for awhile," said Diana. "He and his wife, Kathy, had two sons, Lane and Loren. It was after Loren was born that they moved back to Kilgore in a house near us. When he was born, Buddy was told he had to name the baby before he left the hospital. The baby left alright and on his birth certificate was written, "Baby Boy Barber."

My daughter, who was around twelve years old, would go get Loren and bring him back to the house all of the time. She started calling him Loren and then "Robert" was added and the next thing we knew, he became Robert Loren.

"Kathy loved to paint. One time, after Loren had started to school the teacher asked him what his mother did - she paints, he answered. Oh, said the teacher, thinking she was an artist. Loren said, no, she paints walls. She was notorious for waiting until Buddy left for work and when he came home she would have taken the house apart, repainted it and had it put back together again. The woman liked to paint."

"The couple owned a used car lot for years in Kilgore located at the traffic circle. He saw a variety of people over the years at the car lot and he loved helping them," she said. "There were good ones and bad ones, outlaws and saints, cheaters and church folk (sometimes one in the same)," said Russell. "But they came, and unlike most people, he drew no buffer to push them away. Sometimes he wished he had. But generally, with acquaintances, his motto seemed to be, 'let thy hook be forever cast.' Maybe he thought he had been all of those things at one point in his life," he said.

To know Buddy was to love his story-telling as he became a master of telling the best. Buddy was a past state director of the Texas High School Rodeo Association, a member of the Roanoak Masonic Lodge No. 860, Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, S.H., U.S.A. and an elder in the Chicota Presbyterian Church in Chicota, Texas.

He passed away on April 25, 2008. He was with his family on the Two Rivers Plantation. His mother and sister, Beverly, still live in Kilgore and the last we heard still had some cattle that they tend to.

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Sponsorships are being sought at the Kilgore Crisis Center as last minute details to Casino Night were finalized during a board meeting held Tuesday evening. For a night of fun and excitement contact Eugene Davis at the Kilgore Community Crisis Center 903-984-3019.

Blowing out the candles today are Al Grush, Joel Charchio, Mrs. M.T. Jones, Elmer Calico, Claudette Breaux, Annette Rhodes, Rayfee Williams Jr., Kelly Summy, Leo Wheeler, Patricia Sheffield Clayton, Christi Henley, Stan Jones, Jack Anderson, Barbara Wheeler, Annette Echols, Robert Partain, Hubert C. Smith, Kendall Bell, Isaiah Smith, Katlyn Robertson, John Kirkpatrick.

Happy Anniversary today to Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Calico, Mr. and Mrs. W.C. McCollum.