Ted Cole, Jr.

Ted Jr. grew up in Florida and then Texas when the family moved there in 1969. He attended first Reagan High school, then in 1976 went to LBJ High school in its inaugural year. All his life Ted Jr. loved art and especially drawing things he loved such as music, military themes and later in life, religious material. His favorite medium was pen and ink, and he always used the same style of pen, no matter how sophisticated other pens became. That stubborn nature was a hallmark of his. He knew what he liked and stuck to his guns. Ted loved Heavy Metal rock and spent many nights going to shows around Austin and especially loved going to The Armadillo World Headquarters where he saw many popular bands as they came through our music capitol.

Later in life, he began using computers and it furthered his interest in military history, mostly Vietnam, but he became very knowledgeable and intrigued by the Alamo in particular.

He lived most of his life in the home of our parents and later spent time in several local nursing facilities due to a myriad of health issues, but the last one at Onion Creek Nursing was by far his favorite place. He was the Resident President, called Bingo games and was almost always found by the front door in his chair greeting folks as they came in with a story, drawing or a joke. He often talked fondly of the staff there and he was always ready to chat.

Ted’s entire life was often punctuated by health issues. Juvenile (Type 1) diabetes took his legs and many other freedoms. But he made the most of those situations and you didn’t hear him complain about the restrictions those problems brought. He fought a valiant fight to defeat them but now he is back with mom and dad, trading jokes that dad would cackle at and mom still wouldn’t quite understand. He continued our dad’s tradition of telling the same dad jokes each time he would see his two nephews, Jaret and Tanner, one we all hope continues. He always asked how they were doing and was a good uncle to them. Whenever we’d leave, we’d say, “See ya Ted.” To which he always replied, “Not unless I see you first.” Indeed.

In lieu of flowers, we suggest a donation to the JRDF, which helps with juvenile diabetes.

https://www.jdrf.org.

Due to the current Covid 19 circumstances, actual services will be private. You are welcome to join Ted's service which will be live-streamed at 11:00 am, Tuesday, June 16, 2020. Join by clicking on this link: https://vimeo.com/427471687 (Passcode: Artist)