Elbert Bryman Deason, Jr.

My Daddy's big brother Ebb died last night (this morning, technically) a little after midnight. He was  a bigger-than-life character, I can't believe he's gone. He would always greet me by calling me his favorite niece named Jennifer and he always went around yelling Bah Humbug at Christmas. He told the same jokes every year that were as awful as they were wonderful.

A termite walks in to a pub and asks, "Is the bartender here?"
And the one about the chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.
What would people call you if you were old and fat and one-eyed? (This is a trick question. If you said, "Old One-Eyed Fatty" he'd say "No, they'd still call you Jennifer. They wouldn't change your name just because you were old and fat and one eyed.")

He had a lot more jokes, and that's how I will always think of him.

He was 81 years old. He was a high school principal in Alabama and Tennessee for decades and he was inducted into the Winston County Sports Hall of Fame in 2000. He always grilled the hamburgers and hot dogs at our Saturday-Before-the-First-Sunday-in-May picnic. He grew roses. He smoked a pipe and was a spiffy dresser, even in overalls. He had friends (and probably enemies) everywhere.

He was the kind of person that couldn't be ignored. The world is a more boring place now.