Uncle Scott

This past Monday (Memorial Day), Jeanell and I had the privilege of meeting Uncle Scott down at the Grantsville Cemetery and walking through it with him. Scott is in his element at the cemetery and it's difficult for me to imagine someone having a more comprehensive depth and breadth of knowledge of the families, individuals, and stories of Grantsville. He was of course able to guide us to Jeanell's numerous ancestors buried there (as an aside, Jeanell has forty-seven direct ancestors buried in Grantsville's cemetery, a number that to my knowledge is only beaten by our three oldest children, who add in a few more through their Orgill side before those family trees collide again, and the Millwards (John Ed and his siblings), who have an astounding 52 direct ancestors buried in Grantsville), but beyond that was the knowledge he would have of almost every person whose headstone we would walk past, who and how they were related to others and stories about their lives and families.

For the uninitiated, Uncle Scott is Jeanell's Uncle Scott Jefferies. He is Jeanell's dad (Dave)'s younger brother (Dave is six years older than Scott almost to the day, the same difference between myself and my younger brother Carl, who is married to Jeanell's sister). A little bit strangely, to me, at least, is that I cannot recall the first time I met Scott. He lived out of state for a significant portion of his adult life and consequently was not around when I first dated Jeanell in high school in the early 90s, nor was he around when we rekindled our romance and got married in 2000.

But somewhere along the way we met, and aided by our mutual interest in and passion for both family history and musical theatre, he has become a key part of my life and one of the people I most enjoy being around.

Uncle Scott is a supremely talented musician. His ability to play the piano is exquisite, but his musical ability extends far beyond that. Each Christmas, he composes a Christmas song that he sends out to family and friends. The last couple of Christmases, he has arranged a Christmas medley duet that he has played with my daughter Lila. As an eighteen-year-old kid, he became involved with the Grantsville Opera House Memorial Theatre and was the musical director for multiple productions. He has been a wonderful mentor and help to Lila, who shares his passion for music.

When it comes to musical theatre, Scott again has an exhaustive knowledge. While I might know of a couple of different musicals that a composer and lyricist did together, Scott will know about the actors who originated a particular role, what else those actors have done, and even stories about what happened with a particular production of a show. One example that comes to mind is Elaine Stritch, who I didn't really know of, but she sang "The Ladies Who Lunch" on the original cast recording of "Company," later did a one-woman show ("Elaine Stritch at Liberty"), and would ultimately play Alec Baldwin's mother on "30 Rock." All of this I learned from Scott and it's just one example of the depth of his knowledge.

Scott accompanied Jeanell, Lila, and I to New York a couple of years ago and one of the shows we saw was Sweeney Todd. But the night before we were to see it, we realized we had purchased the tickets for the wrong night, so we quickly purchased replacement tickets for the next night. But when we arrived at the the theater, we found that the replacement tickets we had purchased were very close to the stage and the stage was elevated to the extent you couldn't see all of the stage. Lila, Jeanell, and I were all frustrated by the fact that we couldn't see everything, but Scott loved the seats because they allowed him to see directly into the orchestra pit where he was able to watch the musical director conduct the whole show (while watching a show, he has a habit, that he has passed on to Lila, of moving one hand along with the conductor).

I am not from Grantsville (my family moved here in 1983), but I have always loved Grantsville and always wanted to live here. Especially since Jeanell and I moved back in 2013, I have become interested in Grantsville's history, not just of the town itself, but of the people, and in particular, how so many of the people that I know here have lived here for generations, and how they are all connected. Scott is an unbelievable source of knowledge about all that. Jeanell and I will frequently call him out of the blue and ask him about a person and he'll be able to tell us everything about them, their ancestry, their descendants, where they lived before, where they live now. It's truly remarkable.

Scott's sense of humor and generosity complete the package. Each Thanksgiving, he hosts us all for a wonderful dinner and will frequently invite us over for a game night (he has a 1987 edition of Trivial Pursuit that we've played a few times), or once, to sing together around the piano. He'll frequently go to shows with us or will come over for the Super Bowl or just to play games. I don't know that I could even identify any of my great-uncles, so I'm grateful for the relationship that he has with my kids.

Scott is truly one in a million and one of the best people I know. Grateful he has been and continues to be a part of my life.

 

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