Edward Tatum Barret, Jr. entered Heaven on December 7, 2024 in Sugar Land, Texas at age 85 in the presence of his two sons.
Edward, more commonly known as “ET” or “Fast Eddie”, was a loving husband, father, grandfather, friend, and mentor to many and was the first baby born in the year in Dyersburg, Tennessee on January 1, 1939 to his parents Edward Tatum Barret, Sr. and Mary Watkins Barret. He was the middle son with his late brothers Dr. Walter Barret of Irving, Texas and Dr. Robert Barret of Charlotte, North Carolina.
ET grew up doing many jobs including delivering newspapers and developed an affinity for selling. As a teenager, he worked at an Esso gas station on Poplar Avenue in Memphis and once provided service to the king, Elvis Presley, who drove up in a new Cadillac. Elvis tipped him a quarter and told him to “go get a Coke” after he forgot to pull the hose out of the car when Elvis started to drive off.
Later he became an Eagle Boy Scout, the highest level one could achieve and graduated from East High School in Memphis. He was saved at a Young Life Camp in Colorado as a teenager.
In 1948 at age 9, he played his first round of golf with his father at Galloway Golf Course in Memphis and thus started a 76 year love affair with the game. He attended the Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia with his father and later did the same with his sons. He was an exceptional amateur golfer and played collegiately for the University of Tennessee in Knoxville as he was a passionate Tennessee Volunteers fan for the rest of his life.
ET met the love of his life, Alyce Palmer Wood, aka AP, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in Knoxville at UT as a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. After 6 months of service in the Army at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Edward and AP married on December 28, 1961 in Murfreesboro. Edward then followed in his father’s footsteps by spending his entire career with what is now ExxonMobil.
Edward and AP moved frequently in the early years with his job taking them to Nashville, Little Rock, Memphis, Houston, New Orleans, Memphis again and then Houston again. Edward worked in a variety of roles with Exxon related to sales and supporting service station dealers during this time and won many awards.
Along the way they had two sons, David Watkins Barret of Sugar Land, Texas and Dr. Mark Miles Barret of Tyler, Texas. ET loved being a father and playing not only with his kids but all of the kids in the neighborhood. He arranged many baseball, football, and stickball games in the evenings before darkness fell and often piled many kids into his VW Bug convertible to take to the parks.
Exxon transferred ET and AP back to Houston in 1983, where they settled in Kingwood and lived until 2000. During those years he worked for Exxon’s land development division, Friendswood Development Company. He assumed the role of Sales Manager for Village Builders, the homebuilding division of Friendswood Development Company, where he was instrumental for the record-breaking number of homes sold in the Friendswood Development communities of Kingwood, Clear Lake City, Copperfield and Fairfield, in addition to expanding Village Builders’ growth to other master-planned communities including Cinco Ranch, Greatwood, First Colony, Parkway Villages, The Woodlands and New Territory. He was never short on enthusiasm at work or at home, often inspiring others by his well-known anecdotes of “Get Fired Up!”, “Nothing happens until someone sells something!” or just the most positive, encouraging remarks one could imagine.
Edward won many awards for his work over the decades including being the top sales manager in the nation by the National Association of Home Builders thanks to the support of his passionately loyal sales team. When he retired from Exxon, he became a judge for the NAHB and a consultant for Lennar Homes after Exxon sold Friendswood and Village Builders.
After retirement, ET and AP moved to Tyler in 2000 and built their retirement home on the Hollytree Country Club with a stunning view of 5 different holes behind their house where they lived for the next 22 years. ET was recognized as the “Ironman” at the club for several years signifying having played the most rounds of golf during the course of a year. He was featured twice on the Golf Channel shows with golf guru Butch Harmon critiquing his swing as part of the “Living Room Lesson”.
ET won a number of senior tournaments at Hollytree including his last senior men’s championship in 2013 where, at age 74, he shot a 70 (4 shots below his age!) in the final round to win and defended his 2012 title. He also had 8 holes in one while living at Hollytree.
When he wasn’t playing, he used his selling talent to develop an online golf business on Ebay for reselling the thousands of golf balls he would find every year as well as buying and then flipping golf clubs. He was known as “Dr. Gawf” on Ebay. Their garage looked more like a golf store warehouse than a place to park the cars as he completed over 5000 transactions. He also took a number of golf vacations with AP to Scotland, Ireland and other locations.
ET was also a Sunday School teacher at Marvin Methodist Church in Tyler for many years and also did that previously when they lived in New Orleans. He was known in the family for some unique meal prayers to Jesus, ending one with “I’ll talk to you later”.
Unfortunately he developed dementia following two lengthy surgeries with anesthesia in 2015 and had to give up his Ebay business. In the long, slow decline that followed, ET and AP moved to Sugar Land for their final two and half years together. Despite having dementia for many years and losing many abilities, he still had some long term memory until the end and fortunately never seemed to forget who the family was. Just a few days before his passing, David asked him where he played his first round of golf, and he answered “Galloway” correctly.
ET is survived by his loving wife AP Barret, son David Watkins Barret and wife Denise Gates Barret, granddaughter Kristan Gates Barret and grandson Edward T. Barret III of Sugar Land, Texas and son Dr. Mark Barret and wife Monica Barret of Tyler, Texas and granddaughters Bailey Alyce Barret and Libby Anne Barret of Austin, Texas. He also survived by a number of nieces and nephews and had a particularly fond relationship with his late nephew Erik Barret who had down syndrome.
ET was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on December 27, 2024. A celebration of his life will be scheduled in Houston for his friends later in Spring 2025.
The family would like to thank the many caregivers and staff at Grand Living Riverstone, Anchor Hospice, Settegast-Kopf Company in Sugar Land, Texas and the Woodfin Funeral Chapel in Murfreesboro, Tennessee for their care of him.
Memorials to Edward can be given to the Marvin Methodist Church https://marvin.church in Tyler Texas or the First Tee of Tyler https://firstteegreatertyler.org/
