Mickey Dean, the longtime Southern comedian who made a career out of poking fun at Walker County, passed away on Wednesday night at Walker Baptist Medical Center in Jasper.
I met Mickey around 20 years ago at the Stardome Comedy Club in Hoover. After hearing his set, I went an introduced myself as a proud Walker Countian. I’m not sure if he thought I was coming to tell him he was funny or let him know I was about to whip his tail for making fun of our county. I told him that I had laughed so hard that night, because he knew Walker County so well.
During our initial conversation, I told him that I worked for the Daily Mountain Eagle. He said, “I’m a reporter too. I don’t make up comedy. I report comedy, especially since I live in Walker County.”
From that initial meeting, we hit it off and became close friends.
A friend and I ran Mickey’s website for several years. I shot photographs at his last wedding. We would get together for lunch at least once per month or so. I even named my dog after Mickey, because he has full, white hair just like the human version.
During our lunches, we would typically end up at a Mexican restaurant. Mickey would eat chips like a wild man. He never shut up, so he would be talking full speed while eating chips and salsa. Sitting in front of him was like being on the exit end of a wood chipper. Chips would come flying at you, and the more he talked and laughed, the faster they would fling by.
I’ll never forget Mickey’s wedding. It was up at his home on Smith Lake. I was honored that he had asked me to be the photographer. I offered to do the ceremony, but I think he had a buddy who fixed go-carts and served as a preacher on the side. Anyway, Andrea and I only had two children at that time. Stone and Breeze were both very young. Throughout the ceremony, both of my kids get sneaking away to the food tables. They loved fruit, so they’d bring back little handfuls of strawberries or grapes. At time for the reception, it looked like some wild animals had destroyed the fruit table. Mickey said, “It was those Phillips kids. I kept seeing them sneak back and forth stealing all the grapes. Those kids are nothing but a couple of grape eaters!” From that point forward, Mickey would always ask me how the little grape eaters were any time that we got together or talked on the phone. Even after I added a few more, he called them all grape eaters.
For anyone who didn’t know Mickey, he was a master storyteller. He always said that line about reporting comedy, but that is exactly what he did. He watched people and then repeated stories. Most of his stories were filled with truth, and he would sprinkle in a few details for effect.
It is proper that Mickey died at the hospital that he loved to tell stories about. Several years ago, he had a heart attack. At that time. he lived on the lake, so he was taken to Walker Baptist. Mickey would always say that he remembered waking up in a room inside the hospital. Machines were beeping and two doctors were talking. One doctor looked at the other doctor and said, “That thing is plumb stopped up.” The other doctor responded back with, “we need to get this man to a hospital.”
After he would tell that story, he would always let people know that Walker Baptist was a fine hospital, and he would always feel more than comfortable receiving treatment from that facility.
I haven’t talked to Mickey in a while, but it is my understanding that he died from complications of COVID-19. He had several health issues over the last decade, but he had bounced back and was recently doing comedy shows. Mickey would have turned 75 on Monday. He will be missed greatly by friends and family. He will be missed greatly by Walker County. As much as he liked to pick on the area, he loved living here and he loved the people who lived here. He told me that every time we talked.
I feel like these words should end with some humor. Here is Mickey Dean’s Top 10 Ways You Know You Might Be From Walker County:
10. If you can rent a movie and buy a watermelon at the same place.
9. If you’ve ever seen your preaching thumbing a ride.
8. If you’ve ever referred to Highway 78 as the slab.
7. If you are on food stamps, but you own 14 deer dogs and a four wheeler.
6. You stop on the side of the road, go in the woods to use the bathroom and somebody is already there.
5. If you fight your chickens before you fry them.
4. If you are in a funeral procession and there are fishing poles sticking out of the car in front of them.
3. You see a girl with a beauty mark, but when you get a little closer it turns out to be a tick.
2. If you feel like you need something in your yard with a propeller on it.
1. If your house catches on fire and you can take it to the fire station.
Maybe one day Boldo Road will get renamed Mickey Dean Boulevard.
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James Phillips is editor and publisher of the Daily Mountain Eagle. He may be reached at 205-221-2840 or james.phillips@mountaineagle.com.
The Link LonkAugust 29, 2020 at 07:44PM
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Walker County now a little less funny - Daily Mountain Eagle
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Funny
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