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Editor's Notes |
I' 11 Fly Away J
Some of the music went out of Athens last
week with the death of Billy "Car” Causey.
Billy played music (with The jesters), listened
to music all day and night and loved music,
constantly sharing his latest passion with
fnends.
Cat Causey was an Athens original who
drove to a different drummer and danced
through life on tunes only his ears heard, a
passionate passage that ended abruptly at age
51, after a year's fight with cancer. His last
official act was to attend the Atlanta concert
of the Rolling Stones.
At a funeral filled with the music he loved
and the friends and family who loved him,
Billy Causey left as he had lived, in his red-
rose covered blade casket. (They didn’t have a
red casket in stock.) His friend
Harold Williams says that from
now on whenever a family
comes to Bernstein's to make
arrangements the director’s first
question will be, “Do you want
the regular service or the Cat
Causey Special P
Billy's service consisted of
Rev. Jon Appleton reading
from several memorials,
penned by people close to the
Car Their words sum him up
best, though space permits only
a few excerpts. To get the full
flavor, you shoulda been there.
From Chatham Murray.
“...In the years ahead we took many walks
together on the Orange Trail at the Botanical
Gardens with our pups. Billy also became my
music guru, introducing me to fabulous
musicians and singers 1 had never heard.
Whenever he needed any artwork or
signmaking, we would always barter signs for
tapes. Those tapes are still the best music
recordings I have in my collection.... Billy had
a lot of love in his life and he was one in a
million.”
From Janet Stegeman: “.. .He loved all kinds
of music. How fitting that he went over to
hear the Rolling Stones just Friday. He was
one of the few people who liked to lie on the
floor and listen to my Mahler records with me,
and when he was MC-ing a classical radio
music program, he played all my favorites,
sometimes borrowing my albums because the
station was in short supply
*1 think God needed a good trombone in
what must get to be a bland place sometimes.
Well, when he called Billy, he got a good one.
And when the wind gets to blowing through
the woods where Billy and our kids used to
run, I'll hear hts music”
From Raniall Bramhiett “.. .He loved the
music Davis and 1 made so much that he
regularly set up his ‘state of the art' cassette
recorder and taped our concerts. One show at
the *1 and 1' sounded particularly good on his
50,000 watt stereo, and he was determined to
get the rest of the world to hear it. Having no
luck with record labels, he asked us if he could
get it pressed and released himself. It was such
an outlandish idea but one with such heart
that we all qpeed to let him go for it. To this
day we still get requests for the *Live at the I
and 1’ album (mastered direct from cassette).*
From Mike Causey: “.. .One hobby we
shared with great enthusiasm was our love for
model trains. We spent hours discovering new
ways to crash our Lionel trains. One evening
while we were sitting in the back seat of my
parents' car (Billy’* Uncle Fred and Aunt
Ford) at the Varsity I>tve-In in Atlanta, BiUy
"There
was
always
music in
a house
with
Billy."
turned to me and said, 'Mike, do you know
why Lionel trains are the best?* I looked at him
with wide-eyed antictpanon and said, *No.’
Billy began to explain that Lionel trains are
put through test after test, and if they don’t
pass a particular test, that doesn't mean the
train is not good. It just means they need to
work on it a little more to make it better.
“As I was nodding my head in agreement
to this revelation, Billy looked me in the eye
and said, *You know, Mike, we are like Lionel
trains ourselves.' My puzzled look soon turned to
one of understanding when Billy continued,
'You see, as we grow through life God gives us
Iocs of tests, and there will be some that we
don’t pass. But that doesn't mean we aren't
good; it just means we need a little more work ”
From Dous Causey :
“...Billy gave me music ...
Chet Atkins to be more
precise, but so many others,
too. From Bill Haley to Jackie
Gleason — Ray Charles to
Glenn Miller.... If the was all I
had ever gotten from Billy, it
would have been more than
enough Bur he also gave me he
belief in me. There was always
music m a house with Billy "
From Dan MagtU. “...He
was one of the very best
umpires who ever worked
matches at the National
Collegiate championships in
Athens, and he invariably would be assigned
the most difficult of umpiring jobs when the
situation called for it. That is, the Service Line
— where linesmen must call ‘good’ or ‘fault’
on balls traveling over 120 miles per hour. 1
have heard America’s most famous tennis
referee, Mike Blanchard (referee emenrus at
the U. S. Open), say that he had rather have
Cat Causey on the service line than any ocher
linesman in America."
Arxf. fmally, the merest excerpt from Joe
Causey:
“...1 think what 1 admired most in my
brother Billy were two wonderful traits he had:
The first, a strong sense of loyalty — a loyalty to
htt favorite sports teams, to his favorite actors,
his favorite musicians, his favorite politicians;
loyalty to the underdog, and yes, even loyalty to
me... After that sense of loyalty came Billy *
thorough and boundless enthusiasm. He could
isolate the most fleeting moments of a French
horn part which'waiHxiried in the underlying
harmonies of a rich orchestration and would
back up the tape or the CD or the record and
play if for you 50 times until, thank God, you,
too, had grown to appreciate its contribution to
the whole. Music was like air to Billy’s lungs and
he drank it in with such zest and with such zeal
“I think I never saw Billy happier than
when Davis would struggle frantically to write
out a trombone part so that Billy could mount
the stage with his beloved Jesters and blow
that ’bone to bits! He was in his element: The
music was hopping and the crowd was yelping
for more!
“My oldest brother died today and yet,
somehow, he seems so present.... He’s forever
etched in my mind, marching proudly in the
Dixie Redcoat Band or crouched over in that
unique pose he had when he was frozen like
stone, concentrating on calling a tennis
match. Yeah... when the Bulldogs take the
field and the Band's playing and the tennis
balls are zooming by at 120 mph, I’ll see my
Big Broilicf, Billy, dressed in red and living
forever at a pace to beat the band"*
David’s
2180 W. Broad Si. • 354 1711
Best Party Spot in Athens
From Rock-N-Roll to tint Dancing
NIC >NJ I 3 AY
Karaoke Night
$25 Bur Tib For
Beat Performance
I IJ KS — SA T
David Prince
Anthony D)'s During Breaks
\V KIJN! KS1MY
LADIES NIGHT
Ladies get in free 9 Drink Specials
Open From 2 p.m. till 2 a.m. Daily
ie ©Uit
H>pagj)ttti £>torc
Lunch Specials
start at $3.75
DINNER
Monday - Calzone $4.25
Tuesday - Spaghetti $4.75
Wednesday - Lasagna $5.25
"Thursday - Manicotti $5.25
t
*
Ml Served
rank Salad.
Bread H Sherbet.
151 E. Broad
Downtown
549-4656
Area Artist Schedule JfofiDay Open Jfouse
Reserve these 3 weekends for a special local tradition.
As artists and crafts-people open their homes and studios to you.
SECOND WEEKEND
Decem6er 2,3,& 4
Broad River Crafts Coalition
Opening party-Friday 9 to 9 pen.
refreshments demonstrations & door prize
Sat -Sun 10am-5pm
demonstration* A door prixom
Sot. and Sun,
*We will be open through the week*
and both weekends, see below
Barbara Bendzunas blown glass clay
Paul Bendzunas biown glass
Raja Braunschwitger turned wood & jewelry
Gnru Edwards baskets & candles
Christo Moody • started glass & kaleidoscopes
David Morgan - functional pots
Barbara Odd - sprit dolls masks & boxes
Jorn Piel - turned wood
at Bendzunas’ studio and Gallery, n Comer
our Gallery is now open 9-3. or by appt Follow
signs toward Eberton from the bypass to Comer
take 1st right alter traffic light, then next right
(hwy 22). then 1st right after the RR iracks
look for the sign 783-5S68
Happy Valley
Holiday Open House
Sale and Demonstrations
Friday through Sunday 10am-6pm
Clay artist Mfce Bagget
Jerry & Kathy Chappefte Flora Eustos.
Kent Foltette. Lisa Koch & Brett Pulliam
Glass Loretta Eby. Bea Ha tala
Jell Jackson & Gna Montgomery
Metal Dei Moody
Clay Art & Artifact Lizard & Willow
Woven Rugs Bonnie Mongomery
Also other regional artists
Open Daily. 10am-6pm
Location 1210 Carson Graves Road
W&tknsvifle
Directions: take 441 to Cotoam Ferry Rd ,
go 8 miles to Carson Graves Rd go right to
Happy Valley or call 769-9522
Barbara Allen
Second Apple Studio
Christmas Pottery and Jewelry Sale
Saturday and Sunday 10am- 5pm
4691 Macon Highway,
Bishop 769-4341
Dewitt Pottery
Sat^ I Qam-Spm 6 Sun. 1-Spm
Dewitt Pottery showroom is open year round
Please call lor an appointment The year-end
sale will feature functional stoneware as well as
decorative ware of raku and earthware >bu can
see some of the largest handmade pots
produced n our region at this show
Located at 71 Jackson St. Watklnsvllie.
Watch for the sign on 441. 769-5361
David Morgen
Holiday Pottery Sato
Saturday, Doc. 3, 10em-dpm
Functional stoneware and porcelari pottery
Come view to is year's new work
at the Strand 162S Lumpkin St.
in Five Points, Athens, 549-6074
The Studio Group
13th Annual Sale
FrL, 9-9 pm,
Sat^tOam Spm, Sun. 12-5pm
Margaret Agner Silt Panting
Brooks Burgess Stoneware
Nancy Carter Handmade Paper
Margy De George Pne Needle Art
David Dtepsi^hotography
Anna Eidsvit: Porcelan
Joe Gitvey Wood • Bea Ldy Ha tala Glass
Annette Hatton Jewelry • Bill Hug Wood
Erfca Lewis Weavng • Pat Staub Stonew.
490 S Miltodge Ave and
399 Ponderosa Dr. n Snapfnger Woods
are
Wild Rabbit Pottery
Christmas Open House
Saf. 10am • 6pm 6 Sun. 12-5pm
pottery by Pat and Carter McCaffrey
as well as work by other tone artists
425 K. Hancock, Athens 353-3802
THIRD WEEKEND
December 10
The Loef Gallery
* a wallary run for and by local mrtlata
Roc opt ion and Open Houao
Saturday, from 12 5pm
pantngs prnts. photographs glass
Christmas ornaments pottery cards
and fabric 320 E. Clayton St. In
downtown Athens. 546-7580
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