Mr. William “Earl” West, 77, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee passed away on Thursday, October 31, 2024. He was born to the late William James and Nellie Lee Barrett West in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on Tuesday, September 23, 1947. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his sisters, Martha Jane Elizabeth West and Josephine West (Cecil) Victory; good friend, Troy Allen Braund, and fur baby, Bandit.
He is survived by his significant other, Gloria Braund of Murfreesboro; sister, Nancy West of Smyrna; nephew, Danny (Veronica) Victory; great nieces and nephews, Daniel Victory, Stephanie (Sean) Scott, Hillary (Matt) Campbell, and Austin Victory; great-great nieces and nephews, Cale Victory, Reese Victory, Sydney Scott, Sammie Scott, Shelby Scott, Dale Hargrove, Levi Campbell, and Addi Campbell; good friend, Frankie (Michelle) Underwood; and fur babies, Sassy and Penny Jane.
Like many from his generation, Earl found education to be a luxury that his time couldn’t afford. He left school in the 8th grade with shoulders already broad enough to help carry his family’s load. He maintained his responsibilities and role within the West family until the Nation called 1 year, 1 month, and 23 days past his 18th birthday.
Earl was drafted into the U.S. Army on November 15, 1966, and went to Ft. Campbell on the Tennessee-Kentucky border for his basic training. Not long after that, he was transferred to Ft. Lewis in Tacoma, Washington, and shipped out to Vietnam. Though there was a significant age gap between Earl and Nancy, she remembers it all seemed to happen in a sequence. Earl was in Vietnam for 18 months, returned to Ft. Benning in Columbus, Georgia, and was discharged on November 14, 1968.
However, the family all recognized that what they knew from the civilian side was far from the full story of what Earl experienced. Many who suffered through the horrific battles in Vietnam don’t want to talk, to remember, to relive those experiences. Earl was one of them. The family knew that early on in his time in Vietnam, Earl’s platoon of 28 was sent into the swamps on a mission. Earl was the only one to return, surviving by hiding underneath the water with a reed in his mouth for air for nearly 7 days before being rescued. All the while, the Viet Cong were searching for any survivors.
The instance got Earl promoted to Seargent, reassigned, and sent back out now in charge of a group of men. He recalled children running up to the troops in a village saying “Candy,” and he told them all to back up. Looking more intently, he saw the grenades strapped to them. It was a part of life when everything was a danger. Even the innocent could have something lurking up their sleeves or behind their cloaks. He was leery of everything and everyone for the safety of his men, but worse yet, Earl and the others who returned home came back to a Nation that spat on them and called them “baby killers.”
No matter how many of the details we learn and know about his and many others’ service, we can never truly understand what those soldiers sacrificed. Gloria said it well, “They get to leave the battlefield, but the battlefield doesn’t leave them.” The horrors of the Vietnam War haunted Earl for the rest of his life. Flashbacks made simple things in life, like going to sleep and the Fourth of July, terrors, but what else could he do other than try to reintegrate into society, fade into the background of all the business, and try to forget memories worse than his nightmares?
Earl still aimed to be a man with broad enough shoulders to carry the load. Luckily, a family friend, Mr. Marshall, took Earl under his wings, trained him to weld, and advocated for him a job. Starting at Stringfellows, Earl did repair welding on garbage trucks and wrecker bodies, remaining there for 33 years before retiring. Over those years, Earl collected car parts and made sure he had enough on him that if he broke down, he could fix it on the side of the road. His collecting turned into far more than he could carry in his truck, so he had storage rooms of anything from transmissions to tires. It seemed that Earl was finding his niche in civilian life, and the part he cherished most was his family and friends.
Going out to his friend, Mrs. Porter’s, house at Brawley Pike, Earl met a woman that caught his attention and piqued his interest in conversation named Gloria Braund. They didn’t see one another again for 6 years, but when they met in 1991, they struck up a friendship. He invited Gloria and her son, Troy, over, but the first thing Troy noticed was that Earl was living in a trailer without heat. Winter was coming, and Troy was about to be shipped out to Korea. He formulated a plan and told Gloria that Earl could have his room this winter to go ahead and invite him into their home.
When Troy came back from Korea, he told Earl he was used to Army cots anyway and he’d take the couch. From then on, the family had an understanding. Gloria had her room, Earl had his room, and Troy had the couch. They split everything equally and shared everything equally, and Earl began to notice different pockets of camaraderie in his life, which may have been the only thing he enjoyed about his military service. Troy’s transition back into civilian life led him to take up trucking as his career. A few times, he took Earl out on road trips up and down the East Coast, and they’d be gone for 4 or 5 days before they came home to Gloria. Over their time together, Troy got to calling Earl “Froggy Lips,” but the two would never disclose to Gloria how Earl earned the nickname.
Another area of camaraderie in Earl’s life went back to his ability to work on vehicles. Danny and Frankie had an interest and knack for mechanic’s work, and they got Earl out there working on stuff with them. There are probably countless tales and projects, but one that stood out was that Earl wouldn’t weld for them or teach them to weld. A talented welder, Earl could have easily done either, but he worried that something would break. This may be another way his military service haunted him in that he never wanted to feel like the cause of injury or death to those he loved. He held those boys in high regard, and the time they shared was something he wanted to hold on to for as long as he could.
Now, the camaraderie that became the most pervasive in his life was with Gloria. That was his day-in, day-out person. They went through many highs and lows together, fought for one another’s well-being, and shared a friendship to last a lifetime. Earl became part of the Braund family, even going on trips to family reunions out in Wisconsin. They made it out there 7 times together visiting with her family, and Earl’s only complaint was the weather, especially when they got 8 feet of snow. But that didn’t dampen his view of Wisconsin too much because he became a “cheesehead,” routing for the Green Bay Packers.
When the Packers weren’t on, Earl had on one of three things – wrestling, NASCAR, or westerns, and he had go-to people for each one. He routed for Jerry Lawler and Titus O’Neil in wrestling. He stayed captivated by Dale Earnhardt in NASCAR, and the race never was the same for Earl after he passed. For Westerns, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood took the cake. Earl was just a plain, old-fashioned American, and he enjoyed his simple life and appreciated the truly finer things – faith, family, friends, and fur babies.
It was fitting that he and Gloria got all black and white cats together. It was known amongst the family that when Earl said it, you weren’t changing his mind. No meant no, and yes meant yes. And he didn’t believe in repeating himself. Many things in Earl’s life were black and white to him, and the cats were the same in letting you know what they liked and what they didn’t appreciate. Bandit, Sassy, and Penny Jane became companions that took to Earl quickly, and he took to them.
This mentality especially went for Earl’s view on his faith. Earl Black was a long-time friend and minister to him, and they shared many conversations regarding Earl’s past and his hope for the future. Earl had a blessed assurance that his time on this earth would pass and a greater reward laid beyond for him. A reward that took away the chains of his nightmares, a reward where there is no more worrying about death, mourning, crying, or pain, and a reward that united him with the greatest friend he ever had, Jesus.
Until now, Earl knew he was blessed to see traces of Jesus throughout his life in the camaraderie he shared with family and friends. From the road trips with Troy where he could be with someone who experienced war to the garage time with Danny and Frankie where he could feel like the man and mentor he wanted to be, those men made more of an impact on his well-being than he could ever express. It was the unspoken therapy he needed to live each day and memories that he could try to ground himself with when the nightmares encroached.
Then, there was Gloria. She was there to calm him when the nightmares happened. When he knocked her to the floor to protect her from grenades, when he pulled his mattress off his bed to take cover, when he couldn’t bring himself to even open a door with tears streaming down his face when fireworks left him a wreck in the floor. She was there through it all and advocated for his care at the VA. She along with Troy, Danny, and Frankie went above their call of duty to be there for Earl so that he never felt alone in his fight.
When Earl’s health began to fail 10 months ago, his support network never wavered. They visited him consistently in the nursing home and the hospital, and Gloria made sure she went every day. If Earl called at 2 or 3 am needing something, Gloria would go. Every night, he called at 10 pm to make sure she was okay, the door was locked, and the front light was on. Every morning, he called at 7 am to be sure she was up, doing alright, and that she was about to head that way. His phone became his connection to the outside world, and he made sure it was charged.
You see, Earl found people in his life where his shoulders didn’t have to bear the burden alone, and he made sure to hold on to what was truly important until he couldn’t. Though Earl suffered from PTSD and survivor’s guilt and had many reasons to complain in life, he chose to fight the darkness daily by focusing on the light. He held on to the hand that held his world and was a faithful Christian soldier. Now, he has gone on to his reward, and those chains don’t hold him anymore.
Visitation will be held at Gentry-Smith Funeral Home on Tuesday, November 5, 2024 from 5-7 pm. Funeral services will be Wednesday, November 6, 2024 at 11 am in the Gentry-Smith Funeral Home chapel. Bro. Earl Black will officiate. Interment will be in Prater Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to a charity of your choice.
Share memories and condolences at www.gentrysmithfuneralhome.com Gentry-Smith Funeral Home, 303 Murfreesboro Rd. Woodbury, TN 37190, 615-563-5337 Because every life has a story