- Tim S. Dills

Friday, October 6, 2000, Jackson, Tennessee

I try to ground myself in enough reality to make the people I look up to be those who make a very personal impact on my life. That’s why people like family members and close friends populate any list I could make of personal heroes. I also realize though that there are a few select people I’ve never met, and likely never will, who I also admire. It is rare then when a regular guy like me gets to meet one of his heroes for the first time.

Most of this week I have been in Nashville on business. Meetings and way too much information have been the norm for my stay in Music City.  After visiting and staying overnight with old friends, Friday morning finds me headed to Jackson, where I once lived, for more business on Saturday. As I drew nearer my destination I determine a brief detour is in the works.  Mobile homes, old dilapidated barns with rusty tin roofs and dirt side roads dot the landscape as Lexington, Tennessee nears. Once in the city limits I discover that Lexington is much like the small town in Georgia where I grew up. There and here, the easy small town bustle sets a calm pace for all who enter.

I can count on one hand the number of times I have been to Lexington, and, as I am today, I have always felt very welcome here. Today, though, I feel very lost.  With just sketchy details and a spotty memory to go on, I drive in at least four different directions looking for one of my heroes. I have come here to Lexington, Tennessee to meet one of my heroes I never had the opportunity to meet, Eddie Gilbert.

Eddie Gilbert remains one of my most favorite wrestlers although he died in 1995. Even now I can pop a tape into the VCR and get a kick out of something Eddie said or something he did. Eddie always exuded love for the professional wrestling business and that is just one reason I became a fan twenty years ago. He always seemed to enjoy wrestling and tried hard to entertain it’s fans. I also remember the day I heard about his death and how my stomach knotted and hurt for a long time. It was as if I had lost a close friend that I knew but had never met.

On Lexington’s west side I discovered a small cemetery and began my search. After no success, a man around my age who was working in the cemetery, asked me if he could help me locate a grave. I told him I was looking for a grave for someone named "Gilbert".

He grinned and asked, "Eddie?"

I nodded my head and he then informed me he went to high school with Eddie and further explained Eddie was buried in another nearby cemetery. After getting directions I thanked him then asked him about Eddie’s mom and dad, Peggy and Tommy. The nameless man said they were doing well the last he knew but suspected that "Miss Peggy", a longtime major player in Henderson County Republican politics, was busy with the November election.

A few minutes later I began touring the Lexington City Cemetery. As I searched the lonely fields before me, I forced a weak smile as I walked past some tombstones with such Southern wrestling names as "Lawler", "Jarrett" and "Armstrong". Finally, I located Eddie’s final resting place.

Eddie’s tombstone, which will also one day mark Tommy and Peggy’s graves, features a photograph of Eddie wearing a World title belt while holding a crown. Engraved above that is a wrestling ring with two wrestlers locked up and the quotation, "You are now wrestling for the greatest booker of all times."

I walked around the stone to find Eddie’s actual grave adorned with an orange T resting there to remind those who see it of Eddie’s love for University of Tennessee football. The flower vases were filled with flowers featuring the fall colors of yellow and brown…with orange UT pom poms. A small elephant, apparently symbolic of the Republican party Peggy has worked for and Eddie once ran for, also sits on the site…holding an orange pom pom in it’s trunk. This side of the stone reads "Wrestling, King of Sports." A small wrought iron bench actually sits right beside Eddie’s grave.

And here I am, two hundred plus miles away from home, with no one else around, trying to take all this in.

Standing there in the silence I began shivering from the misty rain and blustery wind. I did not know what to do. I found myself wishing I had brought something to leave on Eddie’s grave but I could not imagine what I could have left that would have been appropriate. Not wanting to disrespect the Gilbert family I determined it would have been unsuitable for me to leave anything. I then tried to recall some of Eddie’s crazy in-ring antics I have enjoyed over the years. Yet as I stood there any attempt to make the moment more than it actually was quickly faded when I looked at Eddie’s birth and death dates carved in stone. It hit home then how little of life Eddie really got to live. As the crisp wind kicked up again I decided I needed to leave but before I did I touched Eddie’s tombstone and mumbled, "Thanks for the memories, Eddie. I miss you and may God bless you."

I then got on Highway 412 West and ventured toward Jackson on the backroads of Henderson County. As I drove past old country stores and bar-b-que joints and honky-tonks I felt sad. I felt sad leaving here. The sadness wasn’t for me though. I was leaving and moving on. I was certain I would think about Eddie from time to time but I never did met him or know him beyond what I saw on TV or live at a wrestling show. My sadness was more for Tommy and Peggy Gilbert, who had to bury one of their children and still live here and have had to move on without a special piece of their family. They no doubt still grieve over Eddie and knew him beyond what he was on TV or at a live wrestling show. I wondered if a cold gray, rainy day like this Friday I spent in Lexington made them miss him even more, much like I now believe such a day will remind me of my travels on this day.

Now I’m here in my hotel room in Jackson anxious to finish the business that has brought me here so I can return home and sleep in my own bed. As I sit here Donna Summer’s "Hot Stuff", Eddie’s theme, plays in the background of my mind. I look forward to the moment when I can ease into my recliner and watch some old Eddie Gilbert tapes hoping seeing that Eddie will bring me out of the sadness I feel now.

Until then though I will remain haunted by my trip to Lexington, Tennessee and how I finally met one of my heroes. I only wish we could have met on better circumstances.

Post Script:

Saturday, October 7: