James Thomas Conroy

JT was a big part of my life as young guy in Kentucky, and I miss him very much. In my memory he is greeting me in his kitchen in Centerfield. He has a little smile on one side of his face, and he looks calmly and directly into my eyes as he delivers a handshake, which feels urgently like it might pulverize the bones in my right hand. I'm trying to give it back as hard as he's giving it, but his face gives nothing away. He just has that calm little grin in the corner of his mouth and he says something like "Mr. Guthrie". He was so tough. I loved JT for his toughness, and for his incredible and distinctive laughter, which I can only describe as a great tumbling Midwestern guffaw. He was as singular and distinctive as a character in a play. I will always love him, and Mike, and Ryan, and Madalyn.