Brice Cochran McLaughlin

Brice Cochran McLaughlin
BOONE -- Mr. McLaughlin, of 571 Wilson Lane Ext., died Friday, December 30, 2011, at Watauga Medical Center, three days after his 82nd birthday. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m., Wednesday, January 4, 2012, at Back Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, with the Rev. Wayne Frazier officiating. The family will receive friends from 10 to 11 a.m., at the church, located at the intersection of N.C. 49 and Back Creek Church Road.
Born December 27, 1929, in Newell, NC, Brice was the son of the late John T. and Maude Utley McLaughlin. He was the third of six brothers who grew up working on the family's dairy farm on Orr Road in Newell. He and his brothers would rise at 5 a.m. or earlier to milk cows and tend to farm chores, then deliver milk on the way to school.
Brice graduated Central High School in 1948, and earned an Associate in Arts degree from Charlotte College in 1951. After a stint in the U.S. Army, where he earned a Korean Service Medal, a National Defense Service Medal, a United Nations Service Medal and a Good Conduct Medal, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Brice grew up with an appreciation of the outdoors. His love of nature continued through the end of his life. He enjoyed cooking and baking and was known for his rum cake. He loved a glass of fine Scotch, a good newspaper, and the Carolina Panthers. He was a season ticket holder since the NFL team's inception. He raised beautiful irises, as well as homegrown tomatoes at the mountain home he shared with his domestic partner and the love of his life, Jerry L. Waugh.
Brice and Jerry's relationship was a true love story. Their April-December romance lasted 16 years and could only be parted by death. They met through mutual friends, and Brice started pursuing Jerry in 1993. He was relentless in his chase after initially being rebuffed by the man 28 years his junior. It took until 1996 for him to melt Jerry's heart. They owned a home in Charlotte together before Jerry's career took the couple to Boone in January of 2007.The other great passion of his life was the theater and cultural arts. Brice joined The Little Theatre in Charlotte in 1959, starting out working behind the scenes as a stage hand and ultimately rising to an award-winning actor. His awards included the Drama Guild's Euripides Award in 1968, and the Dorothy Masterson Award in 1997. He performed in scores of plays and musicals with The Little Theater, which is now known as Theatre Charlotte, and other venues in the Charlotte theater scene. He continued his love of theater even after he retired from the stage decades later. He worked as an extra in several locally-filmed productions including the feature films 'Body Count,' with David Caruso, and Whoopi Goldberg's 'Eddie.' He had a speaking role in the 1975 Earl Owensby film, 'The Brass Ring.'
Brice made his living in various pursuits, from working at Hood Hotel Supply as a young man, to working 12 years as an assistant to Charlotte photographer Tom Walters, to working as a custodian for many years in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. It was never his career that defined him. That's what he did to pay the bills. Brice was defined by his love of the arts, his quick wit, his outrageous sense of humor, and his larger than life personality. A cousin, on learning of his death, said, 'Brice was a force of nature.'
In addition to Jerry Waugh, he is survived by three brothers, Issac McLaughlin and his wife Thelma of Matthews, Ralph McLaughlin of Concord, Jim McLaughlin and his wife Shirley of Newell, NC; and his Waugh kinfolk, Jerry's twin sister, Sherry Waugh, and siblings Debbie Branham, and Roger Waugh.
In addition to his parents, Brice was preceded in death by his brothers John Bell and Edward Joseph McLaughlin, and Jerry's siblings, Ronnie Waugh and Connie Federow.
In lieu of flowers the family requests memorials be made to Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Road, Charlotte, NC, 28207. Online condolences may be sent to the McLaughlin family at hamptonfuneralnc.com. Hampton Funeral and Cremation Service is in charge of arrangements.