Audrey Dean Leighton

1950 - 2005  (55 years)

• Name	Audrey Dean Leighton  [1]
  Birth	15 Feb 1950	San Augustine County, Texas   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Death	18 Jun 2005	Lufkin, Angelina County, Texas
  Notes	Audrey Dean Leighton was valedictorian and Jerry Morris McDowell salutatorian of Hemphill High School Graduating Class of 1968. (Back in Time, 1968, published in the SABINE COUNTY REPORTER May 6, 1998, page 4). Sabine County Reporter July 6, 2005 Audrey Dean Leighton Audrey Dean Leighton, 55, of Hemphill died Saturday, June 18, 2005, at Memorial Medical Center in Lufkin. He was born Feb. 15, 1950 as a son of the late Geraldine (Pratt) and Morgan Barry Leighton and was a lifelong resident of Hemphill, graduating from Hemphill High School as valedictorian in 1968. He was a global twirler and entertainer. Survivors: a great-aunt, Wilma LOGAN of Hemphill; second cousins, Lloyd Eldon PRATT, Jr. of Harlingen and Patsy Clapp SMITH of Beaumont; and numerours third and fourth cousins. A memorial service will be held 9 a.m. Saturday, July 9, at the Hemphill City Park overlooking the Pratt House. Arrangements are being handled by Starr Funeral Home Inc. in Hemphill. Friends remember, plan memorial for 'The Twirler,' an East Texas fixture who marched to his own beat By EMILY TARAVELLA, Cox East Texas Sunday, June 26, 2005 HEMPHILL - He was the valedictorian of his graduating class. He played the saxophone and was drum major of his high school band. A child of privilege, he was a descendant of one of his hometown's most prominent families.Some considered him to be a parapsychologist and a fortune teller. His closest friends say he was "complex" and "multi-faceted." But when Audrey Dean Leighton died a week ago today, most knew him simply as "The Twirler." With his long beard, short shorts, tall boots, brightly colored shirts and hats, Leighton stood out against the backdrop of the small East Texas towns and cities where he was often sighted toting his trademark baton. Lufkin, Nacogdoches, San Augustine and others may have tried to claim him as a "town character" all their own, but Hemphill was Audrey Dean's home. It is where he was born, and - for all practical purposes - it is where he died. A group of women gathered Wednesday afternoon in Hemphill at Pace Creek, an upscale gift shop and plant nursery, to plan Leighton's memorial service. At first glance they appeared an unlikely group of peers for an eccentric, 55-year-old hitch-hiking twirler. But as they shared their fondest memories of the things he said and did, it became clear: These women not only accepted Audrey Dean Leighton, they loved him. Shirley Winslow knew him the longest. "I remember when he was just a little kid twirling his baton," she said. "I watched him grow up." As Kathy DeKerlegand passed around a file folder containing photographs of Audrey Dean, the women smiled at the images: first a pleasantly plump baby, then a young child with striking eyes and finally a handsome teen wearing a graduation gown. Other photographs featured Leighton as a young man. Eight-by-ten glossies showed him performing on stage; snapshots showed him marching in parades, high-kicking as he twirled his baton. This is how the women will remember their friend - not as he looked in his hospital bed a few days ago, communicating only with blinks and nods. "He died of bone cancer," they said, adding that, "He may have also had a heat stroke." The folder full of Leighton's pictures also contained his hot-pink business card that reads, "Audrey Dean Leighton, Global Twirler," and the e-mail address, "Twirlerextraordinaire@hotmail.com." After Leighton graduated from high school and attended the University of Texas and other colleges, he began marching in parades and performing for small audiences who would drop coins or dollar bills in a jar. He was as comfortable twirling on the sidewalks of New Orleans, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington and New York as he was in East Texas. His "international tour" included France, Spain, Italy and Sweden. On each of his sojourns (paid for with money from his trust fund), Leighton sent postcards home to his friends in Hemphill. He addressed them to entire groups of people, leaving the decision to the postmaster as to which post office box the card should actually be delivered. When he returned home, Audrey Dean twirled privately for his friends, in their homes or yards. Ten years ago Leighton settled in his family's old home place in Hemphill, The Pratt House. The Pratt House was built in 1908 at the town's most visible intersection by George Edward "Ed" Pratt - the son of Civil War veteran Hampton Pratt. The 7,000-square-foot building has "Greek Revival design influences with Victorian detailing," according to the Sabine County Historical Foundation's Web site. Galleries sweep across the entire front facade, and a two-story portico, gabled dormers and a central hall on each floor are among the home's distinguishing features, the Web site says. Thirty years ago Leighton's friend Mary Ann McDaniel would visit the The Pratt House to provide home health care for his three aging aunts. "That was back when Audrey Dean spent most of his time traveling," McDaniel said. "He would come in from time to time, but we didn't see as much of him back then." When Leighton returned to the house 10 years ago, it was empty. The three aunts had moved into a nursing home, and for years Audrey Dean entertained them there with his twirling. Eventually, two of the aunts died. A third aunt is still alive today, but Audrey Dean stopped twirling for her when she stopped remembering who he was. DeKerlegand said visiting Audrey Dean at The Pratt House "was like visiting the theater." "He would sit at the dining table and speak to the (dead) members of his family as if they were really there," she said. DeKerlegand's mother, Edna Campbell, said she remembers the first time she went inside the house. Although the house had grown shabby from years of neglect, the antiques and crystal inside it took her breath away. Leighton occupied a single room upstairs that had previously belonged to his mother. When the other heirs to the Pratt estate decided to sell the house to First Baptist Church in the late 1990s, Leighton had no choice but to move. The church planned to demolish the house to make way for a new family life center. But townspeople rallied, and eventually they raised enough money to move the house to a place where it would be safe. Restoration efforts are ongoing, but after the house was moved Leighton never cared to go back inside. DeKerlegand and Campbell helped Audrey Dean pack his few personal effects when he left the house for good. Everything he owned fit in a wooden trunk that Campbell allowed him to keep in her living room. Although he never returned to The Pratt House, Audrey Dean would often sit cross-legged on the floor of the Pace Creek gift shop and tell McDaniel and another friend, Donna Alexander, stories about the things that had happened within the home's walls over the last century. The women took careful notes and asked permission to preserve his stories on audio or videotapes. Leighton did not want to be recorded. "Sometimes he would tell us he had been 'communing with the dead' at the cemetery," Alexander said. "He would visit his relatives' graves, and he would tell us, 'Those Pratts are as tight-lipped in death as they were in life.'" Audrey Dean promised that if he ran across any forgotten Pratt money, he would give it to the historical foundation for the restoration efforts. After he lost the house, he often slept at the Super 8 motel in Hemphill. He was also known to frequent the San Augustine Inn, and one of Jasper's bed-and-breakfasts. When traveling through Houston he preferred to sleep under a certain tree, using his backpack as a pillow. He had no permanent residence. Although he had a driver's license, Audrey Dean usually hitched a ride with his friends. Alexander remembers giving him a ride to San Augustine, on her way to market in Dallas. "As he got out of the car, he told me to be careful," she said. "He warned me that there are lot of 'weirdos' out there, and not to give rides to anyone I didn't know." Some may have been startled by his unusual appearance, but McDaniel said anyone who took the time to talk to him could immediately sense that he was harmless. When McDaniel's cousin, a Dallas socialite, met Leighton for the first time, she was enamored of his twirling ability. "She had been a twirler in college," McDaniel said. "They went out in the yard and twirled together for hours." Time passed, and McDaniel's cousin was riding through the streets of Dallas with her "socialite friends," McDaniel said. "When they got to a stop light, some of the ladies started locking their doors and pointing to a man on the sidewalk," McDaniel said. "My cousin looked out, and who was it but Audrey Dean - right there in downtown Dallas." The Twirler was liable to be sighted any place at any time, according to his friends. DeKerlegand was friends with Leighton for years before she learned that her brother had been giving him rides in Marshall. As the women laughed about their memories, the conversation turned to Leighton's last days. On June 1, he returned from a trip to Nacogdoches with an upset stomach. Alexander gave him a ride to the Super 8, and he told her he thought he had a stomach virus. When the hotel management hadn't seen any sign of him three days later, they called his friend Donna Wilkerson and asked her to check on him. "I knocked on the door and told him I was coming in," Wilkerson said. "He was coherent to some extent, but he couldn't walk. I told the hotel to call an ambulance." Leighton died in a Lufkin hospital two weeks later. He had just enough money remaining in his trust fund to cover the cost of his cremation. "He told us he didn't want his ashes in one place," DeKerlegand said. "He wanted them spread." Leighton's parents divorced when he was a baby, and his father was "never in the picture." At the time of his death, Leighton's only family ties were two distant cousins and one aunt. Although his cousins currently possess his ashes, Audrey Dean's friends are hopeful that they will be allowed to spread them, as he requested. The friends said they would like to take a few of his ashes with them when they go on trips to different states and countries. They also hope to keep a few of his ashes in an urn in his upstairs bedroom at the Pratt House. They hope to make his old room a place people can visit to remember the man who added so much color to the East Texas landscape. "We have his hats, his boots and his batons," DeKerlegand said. "We also have his journal, but it is filled with his most personal and innermost thoughts. I hope it is something I can share some day, but now is not the time." McDaniel said she'll never forget the last time she saw Audrey Dean, at the end of May. "He was in the bank parking lot," she said. "I had heard through the small-town grapevine that Audrey Dean had become a Christian. I asked him if it was true that he had made a profession of faith." He said that it was. "Oh my goodness, you're my brother in Christ!" McDaniel remembers telling Leighton. He responded, "It sure looks that way." McDaniel was preparing to leave for a mission trip in Africa, the last time she saw Leighton. Because "you never know what might happen," she had prepared her will. She remembers telling Leighton, "If I don't see you again ..." and him finishing her sentence for her, "... I'll see you in glory." "He was telling me good-bye," McDaniel said. "Without even knowing it, that was our goodbye. It was the end of a 30-year friendship." The Twirler's friends said they accepted him just as he was, because he accepted them just as they were. "He had a gentle, gentle spirit," McDaniel said. "And everyone wanted his beautiful legs." Trailer for "Rainbows End" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkz4Hy114-M
  Person ID	I27102	Strong Family Tree
  Last Modified	17 Aug 2014

  
  

  Father	Morgan Barry Leighton,   b. 6 Jan 1901, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin d. 6 Aug 1962, Houston, Harris County, Texas (Age 61 years)
  Mother	Geraldine Pratt,   b. 15 Feb 1915, Sabine County, Texas d. 29 Mar 1973, Sabine County, Texas (Age 58 years)
  Family ID	F8911	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Birth - 15 Feb 1950 - San Augustine County, Texas Death - 18 Jun 2005 - Lufkin, Angelina County, Texas  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Photos

  Leighton, Audrey Dean B. 1950 D. 2005, Texas He was the valedictorian of his graduating class. Played the saxophone and was drum major. A child of privilege, he was a descendant of one of his hometown's most prominent families. His closest friends say he was "complex" and "multi-faceted." But when Audrey Dean Leighton died, most knew him simply as "The Twirler." With his long beard, short shorts, tall boots, brightly colored shirts and hats, Leighton stood out against the backdrop of the small East Texas towns and cities where he was often sighted toting his trademark baton. Excerpted from an article written by Emily Taravella, for Cox East Texas

  
  

• Sources

  [S266] Ancestry.com - Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997 [database online], (Ancestry.com Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data: Texas. Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997. Texas: Texas Department of State Health Services. Microfiche.).