‘Bubba’ Pannell

A good friend passed away this week. W. B. “Bubba” Pannell completed his coursework here on earth and graduated from this life to be with Christ on Dec. 31^st, 2008 at the age of 87. Bubba’s wife, Annette, preceded him in death by some 5 years or so, I think. Two sweeter people I can’t imagine. I joined a host of people who gathered at the family gathering on Saturday the 4^th of January to mourn our loss and celebrate his life. We laughed, cried, renewed friendships and heard many stories about Bubba and his family. I can’t remember the first time I met the Pannells, but it had to be in my undergraduate days at the University of Texas, somewhere around 1968-1972. I can’t remember exactly because once you met them, you were immediately absorbed into their family and then you couldn’t remember when you didn’t know them. They loved everyone and made us all feel like we were their very own kids. They lived and modeled family for so many of us as we attended UT.

What an incredibly joyous man. I can only picture him with that great big smile and laughing eyes. Every Sunday morning, every Sunday evening, every church function, he was there, happiest in the gathering of the people of God.

There will be lots of stories told about Bubba in this time of mourning and celebrating, and I’ll do my part by remembering three things” Swedish pancakes, typesetting and singing.

Swedish Pancakes: This isn’t so much about Bubba as it is about Mom Ceder, his mother-in-law. I can say it shows Bubba was a smart man, smart enough to recognize character and beauty when he saw it. Bubba married Mom Ceder’s daughter, Annette. Being joined with those two immediately made you a better person, a smarter man and set you up for a life of joy and excitement. Mom Ceder adopted many of us college kids and grandmothered us well. On occasions she would invite some of us to her house for breakfast and she would prepare a feast of Swedish Pancakes, a light, delicate, crepe-like pancake which covered the whole plate. They were delicious. She made them until we cried “stop”. They impressed this west Texas boy who had never had anything like it.  Getting up early was not a normal goal for me back then, but I never turned down an invitation to join Mom Ceder for breakfast.

Typesetting. Newspapers were not always printed on high-speed laser printers, but you probably already knew that. Bubba and four of his brothers worked for the Austin Statesman. Bubba worked for them for 38 years. One of his jobs was as a typesetter, if my memory is correct. Each line of a printed page was cast in a metal mold, producing a line of type (hence a linotype machine got its name). The lines were assembled together in a block the size of a page. The block would be inked and pressed onto news paper. (the process is more complicated but …)  So, picture in your mind the typeset for a page ready to print. It is a mirror image. The letters are backwards and sentences start from right to left, not left to right as we normally read. Bubba once told me that after years of preparing the type and looking for editing errors in that backwards block of type, he was able to read backwards print almost as fast as reading it in the normal form. You might not be impressed with this, but to me, I think that is pretty cool, being agile enough of mind to learn to read the text of a block of print backwards. In life, one has to be able to adapt and learn to cope with new things. Bubba, you are a cool dude.

Singing: Bubba loved to sing. He grew up singing in quartets and choirs in church. The main reason I knew Bubba is because we both attended Central Assembly of God Church. I grew up in that denomination and attended Central during my college years. There are lots of good things about the denomination but one of the more lasting contributions will be that they are a singing bunch. They love to sing their theology and their relational experience with God. Bubba sang bass in quartets. His brother Johnny sang tenor, a sweet, sweet tenor. On many occasions at the end of Sunday evening services, they would gather around the organ and begin to sing gospel songs. Sometimes I would get to sing lead or baritone with them. I didn’t think of myself as a vocalist, but I can tell you, standing next to those two gentlemen, almost anyone would sing better and sound better. It was a sweet time.

Today, the music scene is heavily focused on solo voices, front singers. The art of group singing isn’t practiced nor appreciated as much, it seems to me. Singing with Bubba and Johnny added to my appreciation of harmonies, full chordal expressions by group voices, in tune, on pitch, moving together in wonderful harmonies.  Thanks, friends, for loving to sing.

We mourn the loss of Bubba. We celebrate his life, rejoice that he is Home with Christ and no doubt, adding his voice to the great chorus of praise around the throne. I am grateful to have known him and be counted among his great crowd of friends and family. I carry wonderful memories of eating Swedish pancakes and singing quartet style until late in the evening because of you, Bubba.

Thank you, God, for this fine man. Thank you friends, who came to honor Bubba. It was good to see you and be with you. You did “good.”  Bubba would be very happy and smiling at all the stories.

Blessings,

Jack

P.S.:

Bubba’s obituary can be seen here:  Obituary:

A guest book can be seen until Feb. 1st.