08/24/2023
Our dear friend Jimmy Hedrick passed away Tuesday morning at the age of 69.
Perhaps far too many of you might be asking yourself, “Who is Jimmy Hedrick and why should he matter to me?” To fairly answer that, I won’t be terribly brief, but I do hope what I have to say will give us all a sense of what the business of balloons has meant to so many of us for such a long time; and what Jimmy and his then wife Dyane meant to my family and the greater balloon family worldwide.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s there were a number of prominent figures in the balloon industry on the teaching/convention circuit. It seemed that many of them were so easily recognizable that their first names were all one needed to say, and you knew exactly who they were. Not unlike Michael and Scottie in basketball [Jordan and Pippen], we had our Bruce [Walden], Dotti and Judy {Blanchard and Gorman], Jan [Iiams], Peggy [Williams], Mary and Graham [the Rouses], Marvin [Hardy], Linda [Bruce]; and then there were Jimmy and Dyane. I am sure I have missed a few other one-namers, so please excuse me if I have.
My wife Andrea and I met Jimmy and Dyane at a balloon convention in the mid-’90s. It was my very first time teaching about balloons and Dyane and Jimmy were assigned to assist me in class, prepping designs, assisting students in class, etc. They were so helpful to me and so friendly. This was at what was then one of the largest balloon conventions anywhere – JUBILEE! produced by David and Debra Paulk (another first-name-only couple). Yes, there were conventions long before the events you know today and long before YouTube, webinars, social media and smartphones.
To say we hit it off would be a gross understatement. Here were a couple of “Yankees” (my wife and I) and two from the Deep South who immediately became inseparable. Though our upbringings were so very different socially, politically, religiously, etc. we were never at a loss for words and never argued about anything because of those differences. It was just food and fun, lots of laughs and learning a lot from each other. We found so much to talk about concerning our families, our kids (all pretty young at the time), our businesses, teaching, our cultures and our religions.
After conventions we stayed in close touch by phone and soon after decided we would form a partnership to produce our own balloon convention called The All-Star R***e. The four of us produced that show together for eight years.
Like all of us, Jimmy was many things to many different people. A father, business partner, husband, teacher, grandfather and just recently a great-grandfather. What Jimmy Hedrick also became early in life was a burn victim. Decades ago (before we had met) Jimmy was working on an oil rig that caught fire. Others on that rig were killed. Though Jimmy survived, he had burns on almost all of his body and spent a year in a hospital in Houston, TX to recover. To Andy and me, Jimmy NEVER complained about any of this. He lived life like everyone else even though he was clearly not physically like almost anyone else you might ever meet. The burns he suffered affected his breathing, seeing, eating, drinking and so much more than we will ever know about. To us, he was a good old boy having a good old time in his ever-present cowboy hat and cowboy boots. I always enjoyed seeing the hat box he would bring along when we traveled. Had to protect that hat!
Working with balloons became like rehab for Jimmy as both of his hands had been severely burned in the explosion. He was also an expert at rigging and frame construction and was a very good teacher of all of these things. Later on, he became licensed in pyrotechnics. Can you imagine all he went through on that oil rig and his recovery, and yet still found a way to go back to exploding things??!! That was Jimmy.
I can’t recall anything more than laughter and learning from all the times we spent together. Jimmy’s positive attitude and belly laugh was ever present by phone and when we were together. His favorite phrase always seemed to be, “I tell you what…!” as he would go on to relate something funny or bizarre (at least what seemed bizarre to us) about hunting or fishing, eating squirrel, crawfish boils, or Mardi Gras traditions we had never heard of before, and so much more.
Just before Covid turned our world upside down, Andy and I were so happy to be able to spend time in his adopted hometown of Lake Charles, LA (he was originally from Oklahoma) for Mardi Gras in 2020. After hearing for years and years so many stories about “real” Mardi Gras, we so looked forward to that trip and finally seeing if everything Dyane and Jimmy had related to us about this grand celebration could possibly be true. Dyane took us to their Mardi Gras ball in their convention center where many of the Krewes showed off their parade costume finery. Jimmy drove us around to see the preparations for the communal gumbo. We watched the parade of throwing chickens that needed to be caught (yes, throwing live chickens!) and watching horseback riders go off to “beg” for ingredients for that communal gumbo. He also took us to lunch so he could teach us “Yankees” to eat crawfish the proper way!
What they had related to us for years about their Mardi Gras was absolutely true. It was a grand time for all of us and quite an experience for Andy and me.
Unfortunately, that was the last time we would be together. The last time we would see our dear, departed friend, Jimmy Hedrick.
If you are lucky enough, you go through life with a few close friends. These are your pals who you may not see all the time or talk to constantly. But these are buddies who, when you do get together or talk by phone, make it seem like no time has passed since our last chat or last physical visit together. It’s as if time between visits of any kind has been suspended. You take up right where you left off as if you were just with them only yesterday, and then you go for hours. You share stories of family or business that you might not relate to many others or even anyone else. These are your friends for life. I am very lucky to have a few such friends like this. Jimmy was certainly one of them and Dyane still is.
Jimmy was a character in the kindest sense of the word. I will miss his Southern drawl and oh, that laugh. I will miss times together we can no longer have.
In the end he wanted to go quietly and simply. He wanted no funeral, no memorial service. He wanted none of that. We will raise a glass to our dear departed friend, and you should, too. That, I am pretty sure he would not mind. We will laugh at the times we had, as we remember all the fun. And we will recall all the other folks in the balloon business that we have come to call our friends because of how Jimmy and Dyanne were so quick to embrace us in so many ways and introduce us around.
Because he craved a simple “departure”, if he were here to read this, well, he might be a little miffed at his “Yankee” friend for pulling the curtain back on his life and our lives together.
“I tell you what…” it needed to be said.
Rest in peace my friend. You will be missed.
On Tuesday August 22nd 2023 James Kenneth Hedrick Jimmy loving father of two, passed away at age 69 due to his battle with cancer. Jimmy lived life to the fullest regardless of what life threw at him, some good, some bad. Through it all he never lost his ability to
