Most of you remember him as “The Mule Man” at Silver Dollar City and later, Dollywood. Somewhere, my mom has a picture of he & I together in front of the mill, me grinning like a mule eating sawbriars. Later, when I came to work at the Co-op, I was astonished when he came walking up to buy sweet feed. I hadn’t thought about him in twenty years, & thought he was long gone to heaven. He was OLD when I was little! But here he was, just acting like a normal person, shopping at th…e local feed & seed. I remember after he left, I was beside myself! I had just been in the presence of a real celebrity!!! Gary & Judy were laughing because he was just a regular mountain man to them, & unbeknownst to me, had lived right over the hill from me “in the valley” years ago (& missed it desperately, as he would tell anybody that asked).
Red, indeed, was a regular customer, I came to know soon after. I was always dazzled to wait on him & would engage him in conversation every time I had the opportunity. He worked at The Mine in Governor’s Crossing for awhile & would regale me with stories of the tourists who remembered him from their vacations in years previous, taken with their parents. And now here they were with THEIR kids, & had to have a picture with Red Edit🙂 I adored him and his wife, a sweet soft-spoken woman that reminded me so much of my great-grandmother. She has light grey hair that she wears in little pincurls, & printed polyester blouses, & carries a change purse. Just like my mamaw did. They knew my great-grandparents, & during one of my last chats with them we got to talking about my family. It was a nice visit. Red said, “We-ellll, we better git on outta here & letch yew git back t’werk. It was nice seein’ ya, there.” & he was gone. You can see Red at the Paul Murray gallery, or you can ask just about anyone in Sevier County for their story about him. Or any kid who went to Dollywood in the ’80s. He will be missed by many, including me. It’s never easy to lose a customer, especially one you have 30 years of memories with.