She wasn’t the kind of girl who was the center of attention in any room she might be present. In fact, she was just the opposite. She blended in perfectly, seamlessly, and without a trace that she’d ever been there until suddenly you looked up and wondered why someone important was gone. It was just her way of being understated, unobtrusive, and yet, one of the most important people in any group of those gathered—a genuine friend, listener, confidant, and savant. Her superpower was compassion. Her best asset was her memory for what was important, most of all, to you.
It’s hard to quantify a life in what she was not. Rather, I prefer to say that one of the most gracious lights in the galaxy has just grown dim, for a short time, until it finds the permanent new home by which to help those she loves by guiding their way.
This week we learned of the passing of one of my dearest childhood friends from Keystone School, Patricia Lynette Boyd Contreras, at the still-young age of 71 years. To say it’s been hard is an understatement. In the past three weeks alone, I have learned of the passing of three of my school friends, each of whom harkens back to meeting them ca. 1962. To have someone be in your life, and you in theirs, for over 60 years is profound. But to me, Tricia Boyd was not just a schoolmate, she was a big sister.
It was during the Cuban Missile Crisis that this first grader, at the impressionable age of 5 years old, met and became friends with my fifth-grade fellow Keystone School classmate, Tricia, age 10. While President John F. Kennedy and his team skillfully negotiated a military situation featuring Soviet missiles over Cuba, two young girls were hunkered down in the comforts of an exceedingly large living room in San Antonio’s then very new Castle Heights subdivision.
Tricia was 10 and a smiling, calming presence during a time that I barely understood. We were together at the home of two mutual friends of our mothers, were dressed in pajamas, stretched out on the carpet atop pillows watching a large black and white console TV.
Both our moms had recently divorced our dads. Neither of us was disturbed by that fact, but it was nice to know you weren’t the only one in that situation. Life goes on.
The station was tuned into live coverage of the event, and between Tricia and I, we kept one ear on Walter Cronkite and another on whatever we could figure out the adults were saying.
The reason for the summons to a common area was the large brick home that had an underground shelter built near enough to reach quickly on property far enough in the still undeveloped part of San Antonio to be private.
What was going on in the world at that time was no less scary to children back then than the present-day trauma and tragedy surrounding children today.
My parents had only been divorced a short time at that point, and one of my two godfathers, our host for the gathering, thought it was best that we were all together for those first days. The only memory of that time was Tricia’s reassurance to me that everything was going to be alright, not to worry. I never forgot her kindness and compassion.
Throughout our years together at Keystone, she was four years ahead of me, and so our paths didn’t cross too frequently. However, there was a general comfort in being on the same campus with someone you knew and simply being reassured that whatever questions you might have that was bearing on your mind, you could ask her (what’s third grade like? Is division hard?) And yet, for my next eight years, Tricia was always there for me, a dear friend who reassured me that no matter what was ahead, she just kept smiling.
The unique layout of what was then about 250 students housed in a small village of historic Victorian mansions converted into makeshift classrooms. Tricia’s mom, Pat Boyd, drove one of the school’s three transportation vans to and from school each weekday. Aside from the fact that 12 grades of classes all existed concurrently and crossed the campus every 50 minutes, the first graders would be guaranteed to spot the high school kids while they were on the four-square courts for their recess periods. Daily interactions created a sense of calm and looking ahead to preview what was next ahead in the education path. Nothing was scary that way. Everything seemed within accomplishment, and sometimes that’s the smallest of edges you need to move ahead.
Tricia had a wonderful, yet normal life at Keystone. She took a year to be a cheerleader and she often worked on projects when Mr. Greet needed extra students to pitch in on a mail-out. He had a list of first-call helpers and she was always happy to contribute her time. It was also just part of the Keystone way.
She was interested in science but not obsessed with it. Although she was a member of the Future Scientists of America, it’s likely that 90% of the high school were members. She enjoyed interacting in the Spanish Club from junior high forward.
She was a good student, but she did not obsess over whether she had the top grades on a test. Tricia had a strong sense of style and enjoyed being part of Joske’s Teena Texas Advisory Board.
Just as Prof and Coach Eargle were mentors to me at different parts of my life, Mr. Greet was a mentor to Tricia. Our administrators knew our grades just as well as our faculty did. They kept tabs on us whether it was a test or a special project, a competition, or a scholarship application. Our future was their business.
Tricia chose the University of Texas at Austin and she was an excellent student there, so it was only natural that she would become a Registered Pharmacist. In her adult life she was fortunate enough to marry and to have two amazing daughters of whom she was so very proud. Throughout her adult life, her mother, Pat, was a champion to her and to her older brother Clayton. Pat Boyd was a businesswoman, a gifted operatic singer from Australia, and a very intelligent woman.
Personally, I can thank Mrs. Boyd for recommending Keystone to my mother and to Tricia’s dad for arranging for an interview for my mom to reconnect with civil service employment in San Antonio after many years in the private sector. It would be 50 years before I knew that, though. Over the years, Tricia and I lost touch; we were busy with our lives in separate cities but thanks to a Facebook alumni group, many of us reconnected and began catching up with each other’s lives.
Seven years ago, our friend and fellow Keystonian, Texas poet laureate Carmen Tafolla was being honored downtown, so Tricia and I made a plan to surprise her with our attendance. We met at her favorite restaurant that Tricia and her Mom enjoyed eating regularly, and we had the best opportunity to reminisce about childhood, life, our mothers, Keystone, and our dreams when we were kids.
The ceremony that evening for Carmen was exceptional and we were both so proud of her. That’s what Keystone was all about—family gathering together for family’s sake. We were forever each other’s cheerleaders, happy to bestow well-deserved accolades as they were often due. That was the Keystone way…your best competition was against your own personal best, not that of others.
The first thought I had on learning of Tricia’s passing was that she was reunited with her Mom, and that would be a gift in itself. They were two peas in a pod, lovely, fun, witty, kind, caring and devoted to their children. Jillian Contreras and Meghan Contreras McQuade grew up knowing their mother loved them dearly, and that their grandmother similarly loved them. Tricia gave the following beautiful interview to a San Antonio newspaper when her mom passed away. Read it here:
On Monday, April 1, funeral services will be held for Tricia at Porter Loring Mortuary North at 10:00 am. Interment will follow at 2:00 pm at Lakeland Hills Memorial Park near Lake LBJ, in Burnet, TX, where her father is also buried. Details here: https://www.porterloring.com/obituaries/Patricia-Lynette-Boyd-Contreras?obId=31058010
Those who were in Tricia’s actual high school classes, above and below, can share far more than I can about the day-to-day aspects of her young adult/teenage life. It doesn’t matter that our reconnection had taken over 40 years to happen. I’m truly grateful that it did. Whenever you have the opportunity to connect with people who truly mean something special in your life, follow your heart and pick up the phone, send a card, zip off an e-mail, toss an Instant Message, or better yet, just get in the car and get there anyway you can.
Don’t look at it as it could be the last time you have a chance to see that person. Instead, just seize the day and make the best use of your time to share your time with those who impacted your life in a positive way.
In honor of Mrs. Boyd Garcia, Tricia’s mom, here are The Seekers and "I am an Australian”:
“I am an Australian”:
and
In honor of Tricia, as we grew up in the days of go-go boots and mini-dresses, and her equal love and devotion to her dad as well as her mom, here are the New Seekers with "Georgy Girl":
If you’ve been part of music in the Brazos Valley, audience or performer, you know Renn Carson, not by his words as much as by his consistent presence during specific decades in live performance, especially when there was a call for a stellar blues guitar.
A true blues performer has lived what they play—extreme highs and lows—that reflect the way the music business goes. You hope for the best and you tolerate the worst until you can turn life around and get back on track. And you keep on playing through it all.
To write one word about Renn, there are always two words that follow: "and Connie" as the Carsons did virtually everything in life and love together, including music.
If Renn was playing, Connie was in the audience, there for load in and loud out and sound check in between, quietly by his side, sharing his passion for music that gave him the fuel to keep on pursuing that which he loved in life. He was a man truly powered by music, fueled by love for his Connie, and the result was a joy to hear. Hence, "Renn and Connie." This photo is just one of many beautiful memories throughout their life together (borrowed from Connie's FB page). Sadly, we lost Renn on November 11, 2023, the eldest child and brother to his sister, Nancy, and his brother, Hank.
As expected, the historic but modest St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church ran out of sanctuary seating on Tuesday afternoon, November 21, despite pulling in every folding chair, or ushering friends and loved ones into the adjoining church parlor for the overflow crowd who’d gathered to pay their respects to the family and memory of their beloved Renn—born into this world of Bryan, Texas, as James Renner Carson on April 20, 1953, to parents Edward Carson and Barbara Renner Lyles.
Part of the world that Renn created around him the past 70 years flowed into St. Andrew’s as others watched via livestream on St. Andrew’s YouTube channel. Yes, much of it was his church family; and others were his music family. And yet, it wasn’t the full world that Renn created. For all of the years he performed music as a guitarist and an ambassador of music to others, Renn made a world of friends everywhere he went.
Renowned musician Ruthie Foster, longtime family to Renn and Connie, put her broken heart on hold while she offered songs of healing, of love, and faith in honor to the man who was an integral part of her earliest days as an accomplished musician. As Kathleen Phillips and another friend, Ramona, shared words of comfort, and as the congregation shared the words of the 23rd Psalm, the voices present united once more in the beauty of scripture that continues to bring reassurance to all who hear it.
Ruthie said, “I talk through my music like Renn always did. I looked at him as my brother. He was always there to hold me close through good times and bad times and now we can take him everywhere. Right, Connie?” With Tanya Richardson on fiddle and Scotty Miller on keys, Ruthie sang “Go Rest High On That Mountain,” a song that preached to us as she reminded us that Renn’s work on Earth was done.
Rev. Daryl Hay of St. Andrew’s offered a homily that included a quote attributed to St. Augustine, “The one who sings prays twice.” He also shared the words of Kurt Vonnegut,
“Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic, and in tough times of my life I can listen to music, and it makes such a difference.”
While he was on Earth, Renn created a performance portfolio that any music professional would be honored to have. The groups in which he was an important part for as long as he chose to be there included the Blue Gravel Rock Band, The Rock-a-Fellas Band, The Blue Note All-Stars, The King Bees, Eugene Eugene and the Solid Foundation, and headliners including Bryan-born Grammy winner, Donald Ray Johnson, Nat Dove, Sunny Nash, and of course, Ruthie Foster, five-time Grammy nominee.
The one thing to focus on is not the fame or the acclaim of the performers listed, but instead the joy and the peace having the chance to perform with these outstanding musicians brings wherever and whenever they gathered.
Renn was part of an early configuration of The Rock-a-Fellas Band. The band has always been gently fluid, with each member contributing their best when they could all intersect their schedules and good times were waiting. Band members include Donnie Angonia, Donnie Wilson, Heath Allyn, Craig Knight, and at different times there you’d find Tim Rogers, Renn Carson, Mike Holleman and others.
Eugene Eugene and the Solid Foundation Band had a strong following early on for playing local gigs. They blazed a path for some good local blues although the smaller city of Navasota, 20 miles up the road, was far more known for their annual blues festivals. Yet, it takes a town and a venue like Bryan’s Palace Theatre being renovated to establish a place for the blues, and for a few years, the Bryan Blues Festival committee was able to put events together that were popular and well attended. In June 2012, this group featured Eugene Smith, Ernest Gibbs, Renn Carson, James Gibbs, and Ralph Moncivais and the band not only performed their own set, they backed other Bryan legends Donald Ray Johnson, Dr. Nat Dove, and Sunny Nash.
Sharing a photo credited to Ernest TK Gibbs (borrowed from his FB page) from a performance in College Station:
This was a fundraiser for Stillcreek Ranch in 2017, held at the Benjamin Knox Gallery. Wherever good works were in progress, you could find Eugene Eugene and the Solid Foundation to bring a crowd.
And sharing a photo from the 2013 Bryan Blues Festival, showing the band backing singer Sunny Nash, as they did for Nat Dove and Donald Ray Johnson, thanks to Renn's FB page here. Below:
Sharing a 2013 video with Donald Ray Johnson (previously, drummer in A Taste of Honey) including Ernest TK Gibbs, James Gibbs, and Ralph Moncivais, where Renn is slightly hidden behind the camera, but you can catch his guitar stands out in “Rainy Night in Georgia.”
In more recent years, circa 2016, you could catch Renn in concert locally performing with the band The King Bees, together with guitarist/vocalist Jason Gabbard, bassist Dan Peterson, and drummer Mark Esman. Their bio once noted that Renn came in runner-up for first place in a seventh-grade talent show, playing the blues. That was also about the last time that Renn came in second to anyone for musical anything, to be sure.
[Special thanks to Rhonda Brinkmann, Wordsmiths4U, for The King Bees photos.]
As the funeral service came to a close on Tuesday, Ruthie offered the perfect song, one from her most recent (Grammy-nominated) album (“Healing Time”), called “Feels Like Freedom,” which was fitting and perfect to sing Renn right into the gardens of Heaven, reunited with all he’d been waiting to see once again, the promise of which we are reassured. You can hear her sing at the 31:32 mark in this Facebook video:
[Words and music by Ruthie Foster, Healing Time 2022]
It’s not every day that we have to give up a friend far sooner than we’d have imagined, but for as long as we live and love people and let them into our lives to stay, there comes a point by which we have to give them back to the Lord, from where they came. So often we say, “Gone too soon,” or “We didn’t have enough time” or any other lament that tries to describe the loss that we feel. Still, we have recordings, videos, and a ton of memories to share and preserve.
Another “Renn gem” can be found on SoundCloud, posted by user WMHarps a few days ago, “Richland City Blues,” featuring Ruthie Foster, Renn on guitar, and Tim Moyer on harmonica. Check it out here: https://soundcloud.com/user-248647677/richland-woman-blues
Finally, a special dialogue between musicians Renn and Ruthie takes place in the song, “Turn Me On,” from Foster’s 2004 album, “Stages.” As Ruthie sings/says, “Alright, Renn Carson, show me what you got here,” and Renn took flight on one of his solos, the audience loved it because the man with soul spoke loudly. Ruthie then said, “I believe, I believe he’s got something else to say,” and indeed he did. That’s the way it was often, for Renn on stage. He did his best talking with his guitar and frankly, after he played, it was enough said.
Beyond high school graduation, Renn attended Blinn College and went on to have a long professional career, including working at Agency Management Services (AMS), where many musicians held prolific day jobs so they could play the music they loved at night. Things came naturally to Renn, and he was beyond gifted in so many things he did. He loved his high school sweetheart, Connie Pittman, and they were married over 49 years. He appreciated the simple times and complex puzzles of life.
Family, above all, meant the world to him. Their son Chris and his wife Kasie and their daughter Nikki and her husband Jim brought them three grandchildren, who were the lights of his life. Together they were key parts of organized cookouts and races to benefit the Relay for Life of Brazos Valley for the American Cancer Society, but that was just one more aspect of the quiet goodness of Renn and his family. Anything they could do as a family—that was what was important to them.
If you knew Renn well, you knew he spoke volumes with his heart. Music filled his heart, his love of Connie and his family fueled his soul, and you can rest assured that the Lord has him in safekeeping until the “rest of his band” joins him in Heaven. Meanwhile, the famous band in “rock and roll Heaven” just gained one heckuva blues player.
And, as Ruthie sings and Renn plays, and the beloved, precious children dance in front of the stage together with the late Samantha Banks and iconic Larry Fulcher on bass, the secret to life is knowing when to compromise….” Here it is, for Renn with great respect, Ruthie’s “Full Circle,” with his amazing notes.
Renn's circle of life is now complete. Well done, thou good and faithful servant, Renn. Amen and amen.
Twenty years ago this week, Donald Bellisario’s and Don McGill’s genius ensemble called “NCIS” premiered on CBS, a shot-in-the-dark gamble of a series based on a complex character of a determined yet troubled Marine, Leroy Jethro Gibbs with Mark Harmon as lead. McCallum was also included on the two-part story on Bellisario’s “JAG,” where the character originated.(Photo permission, CBS Press Express)
Harmon, still a young unknown, had come to their attention thanks to his four-episode role as Allison Janney’s love interest in “The West Wing.” To make “NCIS” come alive, with gravitas, Bellisario knew he could count on David McCallum to be the perfect counterpart to Gibbs, as medical examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard.
Who better than the man who embodied cool under pressure, having played Ilya Kuryakin from 1964–1968 on “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” His repertoire had included Shakespeare, and theatre productions of “The Lion in Winter” and “Julius Caesar.” The Glasgow, Scotland, native won the hearts of Americans in the 1960s with his cool, suave portrayal of Illya Kuryakin, secret agent, in the proverbial black turtleneck cast opposite the ultracool Robert Vaughn.
McCallum had a wonderful means of expressing himself with any dialogue he was given and for exactly the past 20 years, he “was” Ducky to this generation of Americans who adored his brilliant memory, tolerated his penchant for telling a three-minute answer in eight minutes (on the show) and his dapper portrayal of a man whose heart was always with the U.S. Marine, both throughout the show and beyond.
In many episodes of “NCIS” over the years, Ducky’s character provided closure when homeless Marines were killed in assuring that they received full military honors when appropriate. There were several occasions that showed Ducky attending the Marine Military Ball, which was a fund raiser for their scholarship fund.
Far more than a character actor, McCallum was a music professional, having studied oboe at the Royal Academy of Music. Sort of keeping it all in the family, given that his father was first violinist for the London Philharmonic and his mother a cellist.
Even beyond that, the music continues. His family with two women includes four sons and a daughter. With first wife, Jill Ireland, are sons Paul, Jason (d. 1989), and Valentine. With wife Katherine Carpenter are son Peter and daughter Sophie.
Son Val is a guitarist and singer-songwriter who is a veteran of many tours. He also has been a studio musician with Jackson Browne, Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Raitt, and Loretta Lynn. Val noted that “My grandfather actually played on The Beatles’ track A Day in the Life”; “He’s also credited by Jimmy Page for suggesting using a violin bow on the strings of his electric guitar.”
Son Paul is a popular and respected guitarist, songwriter, and performer in Los Angeles, who favors jazz, blues, and some of his own compositions, which you can find on “Jazz Dogs” by the Paul McCallum Trio. Fellow musicians include Tom Buckner, Granville “Danny” Young, and Rod Harbour as well as Dave Smith and Doemenic Genova.
Son Peter told Sky News, “He always put family before self. He looked forward to any chance to connect with his grandchildren and had a unique bond with each of them.”
For 459 episodes McCallum sustained record-setting times for “NCIS,” a season beyond Harmon, albeit not in each episode of Season 19, for CBS and for all of us who know much of the dialogue from any number of these episodes.
More than a TV show, more than a standard entertaining procedural with strong plots thanks to brilliant show runners who assured the characters stayed true to Bellisario’s and McGill’s visions, “NCIS” was a part of family life for many on Tuesday nights (later on the show shifted to Mondays) and was the foundation by which audiences would later come to know and enjoy “NCIS: LA,” “NCIS: New Orleans,” and most recently “NCIS: Hawaii,” which has to be some kind of record for launching multimillion-dollar enterprises for one network. (Photo below by Michael Yarish)
Michael Weatherly shared on Twitter, “David McCallum made every moment count, in life and on set. Let’s raise a jug and celebrate a funny fantastic authentic man. I’ve only got 3 autographs. Connery, Tony Bennett and McCallum. … No one did it better. We were lucky to have him bring us Ducky. Let’s send all the love in the world to his beautiful family. Rest In Peace David.”
Brian Dietzen, who played Ducky’s mentoree, Jimmy Palmer, shared today on Twitter, “Such a kind soul and a terrific talent. You are missed beyond words, my friend. My heart just breaks today. Thank you for everything. Sending all my love to the McCallum family.” (Photo by Cliff Lipson, 2011, courtesy of CBS)
To anyone expecting a quote from Mark Harmon, they’ll have to wait until morning for the press outlets as neither Harmon, nor Gibbs, are on social media, but you already knew that.
As the character of Ducky was seen to deem, in his discussion with Gibbs about the fate of his massive personal fortune, it was to be given to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, and in April 2015, the U.S. Marine Corps invited him to be the official starter for the Marine Corps Historic Half race. It is poignant and caring that the McCallum family “asks that donations be made to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation at http://www.mcsf.org — just as Ducky would have appreciated.
David penned his first novel “Once a Crooked Man” in 2016 and “recorded four albums for Capitol Records comprised of instrumental versions of hits at the time.” If that’s not enough, McCallum was a prolific actor and voice character for various movies, video games, and TV series.
He was born September 19, 1933 in Glasgow, Scotland; the premiere of “NCIS” was September 23, 2003, which they are rerunning tonight on CBS—the episode is “Yankee White” and features Sasha Alexander at FBI Agent Caitlin Todd. And, he died September 25, 2023 in New York City at the age of 90. Wouldn’t you know it?
Today, by long-ago plan, CBS had declared this day and evening “NCIS Day” in honor of the 20th anniversary of the show’s debut. They are airing 3 episodes of the show tonight beginning at 7pm CST, “Yankee White,” “SWAK,” and “All Hands.” Longtime fans of “NCIS” already know what those episodes are all about.
Everything seems to have come full circle then, and right on time for airtime tonight.
