My uncle, Teddy Ronald Luebbert, passed away last Friday, March 10, 2023… I was privileged enough to perform his funeral. I have asked for and received permission to share what I gave! After some songs and a prayer I delivered ‘Part 1’, another song and my (Much) younger cousin gave her memories, another song and I read ‘Part 2’, closing, of course, with another prayer.

At the gravesite I started by noting how much of the ‘plain’ in the distance used to be what I called ‘Luebbert Land’, since we used to farm a fair part of it. I then gave the last section, and finished with singing, ‘I Come to the Garden’, after which the Honor Guard performed their ceremony.

I am posting it on here because I believe that even those who might not have actually Known MY ‘Uncle Teddy’ might get some ‘good’ from it… I feel certain that many people have an ‘Uncle Teddy’ in their own lives to relate to!!

(Part One)

       OK, I need to start this by making one very important correction… In spite of what some may have read, I am NOT, nor ever have been, a ‘Reverend’! I have been a ‘preacher’, a ‘teacher’, a ‘youth-sponsor’, and even a ‘pastor’… not to mention my ‘day-jobs’ as an operator, truck driver, and mechanic! I am a writer, a speaker, and wana’-be-philosopher… But I have never been a ‘Reverend’ of any kind, no matter how many people have addressed me as such! What I AM, though, and HAVE been my entire life, is a ‘Luebbert’. I want to talk today just a bit about what that means, and about one Luebbert in particular… Teddy Ronald Luebbert.

Now, to understand what being a Luebbert might mean, I might need to talk about My grandma & grandpa Luebbert, Teddy’s mom and dad (That’s Reba and Theodore [or ‘Ted’] for those who might not remember…), as well as tell some stories from-or-about his brothers and sister.

Teddy became a Luebbert when he was born on May 28, 1937 in Kirkwood, MO… My aunt Donna, Teddy’s younger sister, told me that the reason he was born in Kirkwood was because the Mississippi had flooded (again) and forced them out of their home along it at just that time. I don’ think I need to quote from the obituary facts that most of us here know as to his heritage… suffice it to say he was born and raised a Luebbert! I, on the other hand, became a Luebbert when I was about 2 years-old, and met ‘Uncle Teddy’ at about that same time… that is, just about the time he was graduating from high school.

This might be the point to insert how Teddy seemed to be fully immersed in the philosophy, that all Luebbert’s seem to have to some degree, that the grass might be greener on the other side of the fence… to that end I’ve been told how he and a friend ran-away-from-home his junior year of high school to find work on the oil rigs of Texas! When that didn’t pan out and they ran out of money, it was his mom who sent them enough to come home on… on the condition that he finished school!

But MY stories and memories of Uncle Teddy begin just after that time and go on, generally, until I moved out of the area in the ‘70’s. I can tell you about how he got into ‘racing’ not long after he returned from serving in the Navy for four years in 1959. I remember the ‘hulk’ of an old beat-up stock car sitting somewhere out back on the farm along the canal… I remember it was black and had big white letters hand-painted on it that identified it as ‘U2’… I always thought that was the neatest thing!! Aunt Donna, though, told me how grandma went to watch him race One time at Mitchel and saw him crash… he was fine, but she swore she would Never go to another!!

Speaking of crashing, I also seem to recall him crashing almost, if not Every, vehicle he ever had during those years, and quite a few of grandma’s as well… I specifically remember something about a motorcycle and grandma’s little black Dodge Dart! But he always seemed to recover from any of them just fine. He was very lucky!

And speaking of luck, Teddy was also sometimes very lucky with various things such as the friends he had and Lottery tickets and the game boats and such! Aunt Donna tells of him riding a bicycle with her on the handlebars down the center line of what used to be the major highway from the canal into Hartford… they’re BOTH lucky to have survived!

But as often happens, to be lucky in one part of your life is to be unlucky in others… ‘Though there Are those who say that our lives are not so much about ‘luck’ as they are about planning, dreaming, and hard work… And Teddy was very familiar with ALL of these!

I can recall going with my dad, Teddy’s oldest brother, Darrel, to help him and several of his buddies as they rebuilt the old schoolhouse south of Hartford into what came to be called the ‘Spot’ tavern. Yes, I’ve heard how some of the ‘peoples’ of Hartford didn’t think much of it, but HE loved it whether it made a profit-or-not! Aunt Donna tells of going in to help at different times and setting the baby on the bar as she was doing whatever she went in to do, and how she and grandma would be the ones cooking the fish for some of the Friday fish fries! For my part, I remember when it closed that I got all of the 45’s out of the jukebox, as well as a collection of ‘Schlitz Beer’ coasters and a big stack of these really long, skinny, brown paper bags!

I remember his buddies convincing him one time to run for the local road commissioner… Teddy ran, as I recall, on the slogan, “If nominated I will not run, If elected I will not serve”. I’m not sure who Really said it first, but the first time I ever heard that was from Uncle Teddy!

As to his friends, the only one I remember was ‘Tiny’… and the only reason I remember him was because he Wasn’t! I also remember, though, how, like Jim Nabors, Tiny’s singing voice was so amazing that he recorded and released an album under his real name, Jim Harrington.

After I moved from the area it has my dad, Darrel, who would regale me with various Uncle Teddy stories… I remember being told that instead of paying people to build his new house on 7^th street that he offered to furnish his union buddies ‘all of the beer they can drink’ to help build it, and how that wound-up costing him more than if he had paid scale! And, I was told, how they all wanted to test the fireplace before the firebrick had been installed and wound-up cracking the brick wall. (Aunt Donna says She doesn’t remember a fireplace, but I know I was told that story!?!) I heard about, and was suitably impressed by, his competing in and winning the ‘Case’ Backhoe Rodeo… Having owned my own Case backhoe at one time I knew this was Not a minor feat!

And again, yes many of the Luebberts have been known for operating machinery… in addition to all of the farm equipment, Grandpa-and-sons had a number of crawlers through the years, and even a small dragline when he retired to the farm in Missouri! I recall dad talking about donating some time to build some of the playing fields at Gordon F. Moore Community Park… at one time there was a street sign that said ‘LUEBBERT’ on one road to commemorate their service. I’m not Sure that Teddy had a hand in that project, but he certainly Could have had! Because another trait of many Luebberts is their willingness to help others!

And I can’t leave this session of talking about the Luebberts and Teddy’s ‘earlier’ years without mentioning the sawmill. I only got to see it used once or twice when I was very young… but I remember the process of getting the tractor belted-up to it ‘just-so’ to run it… Again, I’ve been told that grandpa and the kids used that mill to saw the lumber for many of the houses and buildings in-and-around Hartford during its early years!

I’m sure there are many here today, older than my 70 years, who have more, and even Clearer, memories of Teddy stories than I have… But That is the mark of a life well led! I’m going to turn this over now to one of the Younger generation who have lived with and known him during the years I was ‘away’… I will come back, later, and talk a bit more about the ‘Luebberts’ and how being one influenced so much of who Teddy was and how he lived his life. ‘Until then, just think on Your memories… and stories… of Teddy Ronald Luebbert.

(Part Two)

       I want to talk, now, a little about the Luebberts. Teddy Ronald Luebbert was, in many ways, the epitome of a Luebbert. But what, exactly, does that mean…

       To borrow a phrase from Rod Serling, ‘Imagine if you will’, a young boy who has somehow gotten hold of a little scooter, and he would Dearly love to ride it… The only problem is it won’t start! So he gets his little sister to drive their small tractor and pull him on it to try to start it… She pulls him around the barn yard, and then out onto the road… she pulls him all the way through the fields into Hartford, pulls him around the streets of Hartford, and finally pulls him all of the way back out to the farm! In the meantime, one of the ladies in Hartford sees them and calls their mother. So, as they are coming down the last stretch towards the farm, they see this little woman with steam rising from her standing in the yard with a broom!! On seeing her there, Teddy bales off of the scooter and goes running the other direction, leaving his baby sister to ‘face-the-music’ alone! Of course, we all know that eventually he Had to come home… and it was even Worse for him when he did!

       Growing up in the ‘40’s and ‘50’s had to be tough enough on its own! For example, I have seen pictures of the boat tied to the steps of the stilt-house they lived in along the Mississippi when the waters were up… Donna says she recalls Grandma putting the boys in the boat by themselves and shoving them off to go to school… Can you imagine how some of these ‘spoiled’ kids would react to something like that today? I mean, many are not even allowed to ride the school bus but have to be driven to, dropped off, and picked up, at the door of the school! But here we have three boys climbing into a rowboat and paddling through the flood waters of the Mississippi, probably fighting with each other all along the way, get to shore and pull the boat out of the water, then walk the rest of the way to school!?! Can you imagine growing up like that AND having two, shall we say, Very strict… parents at the same time?

       To go back to the image of Reba standing in the yard with the broom, I’m sure that those of us who knew and remember Reba can just picture her stance as she waited there, and can even hear her voice as she ‘lit-in-to’ the two of them! I’m also sure that many of us here today have heard, or even experienced, their own stories of ‘dealing’ with either grandma or grandpa (OR.. Reba or Ted, if you will…). But let’s be clear about something… As legendary as their strictness, and, yes, even temper, might have been, there was a method in their madness!

       Many of you may remember my brother Mike… He was most of three-years younger than me, and quite a ‘pistol’ even when very young. The story is told of Grandpa working on a project in the back of the farm yard that had him15-18’ up in the air… Somehow, he had been put in charge of babysitting Mike that day and had him up on the platform with him. Mike was fascinated by how high up they were and kept walking to the very edge of the platform. Grandpa would yell at him to get away, and would finally have to stop what he was doing and go drag him away from the edge… Butttt.. Mike being Mike, it wasn’t long until he was back right on the edge again looking down! After so many times of yelling at him and dragging him back, grandpa finally nailed his pant leg to a board and kept him there until time to go eat lunch. Mike went crying up to grandma, ‘Grandpa nailed me to a board!’… Grandma retorted, ‘Well, are you hurt?” to which Mike had to say, ‘No’… and that was that!

       My point is that for all of their strictness… and I’m sure there are those who sometimes interpreted it as ‘meanness’… it was out of love!!! It was out of an attempt to protect and teach their children about life, and to push them into being better human beings!

       Which leads us to discussing the elephants-in-the-room… Without which, no remembrance of Teddy would be accurate or complete.

       First, I recall Grandpa Luebbert drinking one Falstaff when he was done for the day, and I’m told he also had a ‘medicinal’ shot each night before bed. My dad, Darrell, the oldest boy, only drank occasionally, while I have Never had a drink. Teddy, on the other hand, Did drink! And I’m sure you could find as many people who fault Me for Not drinking as you might have found for Him doing so. But… here is My take on that…

I have seen, and even known, some people who drink out of sadness… they drink to forget, they drink in spite, they drink to get by… they just drink to survive. But I’ve never thought that about Teddy! I don’t believe Teddy ever drank to just get drunk. Instead, I’ve always felt that Teddy drank because he just Loved life so much… and drinking made him even happier and be able to enjoy it even More! And regardless of your thoughts on drinking, I challenge Anyone to dispute that!

The second elephant we need to address is his temper. I’ve already addressed his upbringing and how much that was just a part of it. And if the truth be told, it is trait that seems to have followed ALL of the ‘Luebberts’ along this branch of the family… even I, an ‘adopted’ Luebbert, seem to have picked it up from somewhere! But there are those who would say… I fear correctly… that That is only an explanation… It is NOT an excuse! So, how DO we deal with that? I can’t make a blanket statement for every instance, but I Can say this much…

Luebberts sometimes have a Very hard time with one particular four-letter word… Love! This is something that seems, again, to be inherited… But I KNOW it can be overcome! I have told how, before dad died I was able to ‘force’ myself to start telling him I love him… and even though he might have stumbled over the words, he would say it back each time! And I recall being at ‘the garden’ one time soon after dad passed and telling Uncle Teddy that I loved him! Again, he kinda’ slurred his way through it, but he told it back to me!

Those closest to Teddy Know that he was a caring, loving person! But he showed it more by helping others in most any way that he could! He maybe wasn’t so good on a more personal level… but that Love was always there, nonetheless!

So, let’s remember Teddy for his outgoing, happy-go-lucky, even, yes, boisterous… another ‘Luebbert’ trait, by the way… way of living! He tried so Hard to be happy, and really did try to make others happy as well! Like all of us, he might not have always been successful at it… But it WAS in him… and he Did try!

Let me just close, then, with this quote from Psalms, chapter 144, verses 3 & 4… “Lord, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.       And this from the Book of Revelations 21:4 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.”

Teddy Ronald Luebbert… we pay our respects to you, we honor you and your life… And each one of us tells you in our heart how much we love you and miss you… and we hear back from you, in our hearts, how much you have loved each of us!

Amen

(Graveside)

I’d like to start by reading three passages from the Bible…

Psalm 34:18 “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.”

Matthew 11:28-29 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

1 Peter 5:10 “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

Teddy Ronald Luebbert. Born on May 28, 1937. Passed on March 10, 2023. 86 years of living on this earth… and What a life he led!

I am not going to spend the time to try to relive all of that life again… I hope we did a fairly good job of that as we have all gathered together earlier, and will continue to so for some time to come. All I Will say is that, while maybe not appearing to be so on the surface, Teddy was a lover! He loved life… he loved his work… he loved working in the dirt… and he loved anything that grows… be it plants… or the people around him.

And, again, while it may not have been obvious, I believe he loved God as well! He carried in his wallet this little message… you can find in the memorial…

God looked around and found an empty space.

He looked down upon the earth and saw your loving face.

He put his arms around you and lifted you to rest.

God’s garden must be beautiful, for he only takes the best.

Let us pray…

       God, we send to you the soul of Teddy Ronald Luebbert. While he lived on this earth he was a son… and a brother… he was a husband, a father, and a grandfather… he was an uncle… and a friend to So many people throughout this world!

       God, we know he was not perfect… None of us are! We know he was not worthy… again, none of us are! But we also know that one drop of your Son’s blood wipes away All of his… and Our… sins! One drop of Christ’s blood washes him white as snow.

       Help us, God, to always be able to picture him in that way… Forever washed as white as snow, healthy and happy in Your Kingdom… even, perhaps, joining his brother in digging-up a plot of ground to set a few dozen Heavenly tomatoes and a few rows of potatoes out on cloud-nine!

       Through Your Son’s name we pray…

There is one last thing I want to leave you with today… Teddy also had a favorite hymn. You heard it played during the service earlier, but I would like to sing it for him now… Please feel free to join in on the chorus if you like…

In the Garden   #26