Tony Monroe Starnes

Tony Monroe Starnes "Big T" Tony Starnes, 74, died April 3, 2017. Tony with the twinkling eyes, fabulous sense of humor, and kind heart will be remembered lovingly and missed tremendously by his wife of 48 years, Terry Starnes, daughters Kitt Starnes and Cody Starnes (Jason Schwamberger). Suzy and Molly, his current best-loved dogs, miss the heck out of him too! Also remembering him with love and laughter will be the multitude of friends from his adult life, including his church, friends on Addison Drive in Charlotte and on the mountain in Fancy Gap, VA, his 28 year teaching career, the Charlotte Yacht Club, as well as buddies from his years growing up in Harrisburg, NC. Tony was born on March 21, 1943, at Cabarrus Memorial Hospital, to Edna Fortner Starnes and Homer Monroe Starnes of Harrisburg. His best friend was neighbor Audy Dover, and the two of them spent their early years perpetuating one hijink after another! Tony attended the old Harrisburg School from 1st through 12th grades, graduating high school in 1961. His father had died before Tony finished high school, so upon graduation, he went straight to work for Cannon Mills in order to help support his mom and baby brother, Terry William Starnes, who was a year old at the time. After several years, Tony was got a job in the hardware department at the Sears store in downtown Charlotte, and he began continuing his education, first at Central Piedmont Community College, and then at UNCC, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Business in 1971. Following graduation, he sold business equipment for Olivetti. One of his clients was Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, and within a short time, he was asked if he might like to teach business to eighth graders. The rest is history! He taught in the Career Education program at Quail Hollow Junior High (later Middle School) for 28 years, retiring in 2001. He was a fun teacher who enjoyed the ever-evolving Career Ed program and the accompanying challenges involved in learning new technology. Not one to be idle, following retirement, Tony again worked for CMS, this time as a teacher's aide in an Orthopedically Handicapped program at Oakhurst Elementary School. He loved those kids and they loved him! Those days offered a wealth of happiness and laughs on both sides! He later said it was the most rewarding time he spent in CMS, and he felt most fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with the children and their parents. Later he drove a van for The Art Institute of Charlotte, transporting their students from their apartment housing to the Institute and back. Going back in time now to his personal life, Tony married Terry Granger, also a teacher, on December 26, 1968. They had been married a little over 11 years when Cody arrived on the scene in 1980. During that 11 years BC (Before Children), they enjoyed time spent with colleagues outside of school (party time), took trips with best buds Cheryl and George Foster to the beach, to Disney World, and to the mountains. George and Tony played lots of golf in those days, while Cheryl and Terry did lots of shopping. Tony and Terry adopted the first of their six dogs, Tarbaby, a Cocker Spaniel, along with a used runabout boat and later a used pontoon boat, and spent lots of lazy, playful days on lakes Wylie and Norman. By the time Cody was center stage, the Fosters had a son, Alan, eight weeks older than Cody. The families continued to share quality time, usually weekly at Twin Tops Fish Camp in Belmont, and always on holidays and birthdays. There were trips to the beach as well, and watching the kids have fun in the water became a regular form of entertainment. George and Cheryl's friendship and support have never wavered, and as Tony's health declined sharply this year, they have visited weekly or more often for four to six hours at a time, to cheer Tony and allow Terry a chance to get out for groceries and errands. The fifty year friendship we have had with them has meant the world to both Tony and Terry. In 1983 the family moved to Addison Drive, and Tony became friends with Harry Booth and his wife Judy, fellow teachers who lived two doors away. Over the years, Harry has continued to be a valued companion regardless of Tony's health. He has brought the newspaper to Tony's doorstep daily, and continued to bolster Tony's spirits as his health declined. Throughout this friendship, Harry has loved and helped care for each of Tony's next five dogs: Flakey Jake, Charlotte, Zorro, Suzy, and Molly, definitely "above the call!" Kitt was born in 1985, and both girls grew up with a big, funny playmate in their dad. Tony taught them to swim, to dive, to fish, and helped with their favorite subject, math (girls,don't gag or roll your eyes here)! He and Terry chaired the School Spirit Committee and later the Beautification Committee at Cotswold Elementary and never let the girls forget the importance of their education. All along the way, though, Tony was always hatching up a funny scheme or a practical joke, or finding the humor in everyday situations and ways to make his girls cackle! The family came to Pritchard Memorial when Cody was three, and gratefully found a host of friends for everyone in the family. Tony and Terry found many of their friends in the parents of the girl's friends, so many people assumed Tony was way younger than he was! That idea was bolstered by the fact that Tony never failed NOT to act his age! Coming to Pritchard allowed Tony and Terry to meet Susan Phillips, who was the Minister to Children at the time. They became lifelong friends with Susan and her husband Danny, and Tony had lots of good times with Danny, sharing an interest in fishing, woodworking and tools, as well as simply enjoying each other's company. The family began camping when Cody and Kitt were young, first in a tent, then a used pop-up camper, and finally a more newly used pop-up after the tent part blew off the old one in an oceanfront campground in South Carolina! They also camped in the mountains, and their favorite spot was The Carolina Hemlocks, on NC 80 between the Blue Ridge Parkway and Spruce Pine. The South Toe, a great but icy cold river runs through it. The tubing was always wonderful and the goose bumps plentiful. Tony delighted in introducing friends Susan and Greg Clewis and Meg and Mac McCormick to camping and the families had fabulous camping adventures in the heat and cold, downpours and bright sun, in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Cody and Kitt had perfect and exact age playmates in Shane and Bret McCormick and Amy Clewis. When afterthought Caitlin McCormick came along five years after Bret, Tony took her on as his playmate by teasing her mercilessly. Secretly, she loved Tony's attention! As the girls grew, taking their turn hosting Sunday night youth social times became a fun thing for Tony and Terry, and many of Cody and Kitt's friends have stories to tell of Tony's antics at these gatherings. Tony never failed to have something up his sleeve to entertain everyone or embarass someone! Tony loved his girls so much and was so proud of them and their accomplishments. He loved coaching the first ever Pritchard girls' basketball team and took it so seriously that he was ejected from one game over what he called "a silly misunderstanding!" He also coached or helped coach many of Kitt's community league t-ball and softball teams. Early on, he told his t-ball team that he had three rules: 1) Have fun; 2) Learn the game, and 3) have fun! With those rules he would have preferred not to have the score kept, and it would have been far easier to convince the players than their parents to go along with his philosophy! He loved sending Cody and Kitt to Ridgecrest each summer, and was really excited to finally be able to go along as a staff member in 1993 when the teacher workdays fell late enough to allow him that opportunity. The highlight of that summer for Tony was having Marilyn Withrow come into his and Terry's little room in the infirmary each morning to wake him up, But never one to be "one-upped" with surprises, he had a little surprise in store one morning for Marilyn! It's a story that has become part of "Pritchard lore," which is still being told these many years later and involves Tony's most scary rubber mask (he had many), one that looked like a really chewed up face! Both of Tony's girls studied abroad, and he and Terry were fortunate to be able to visit them in both Spain and Italy at Christmastime in 2001 and 2002. He reveled in the opportunity to expand his horizons and find new fodder for hilarious stories to relate later! "Big Jallo" the backpack, the youth hostel in Rome, freezing in Caceres, "Christmas Eve midnight mass or Christmas day mass?" in Orvietto, four-Euro ice cream cones and panicking as he thought his family was getting of the waterbus without him-these were just a few of the experiences that Tony could tease or be teased about through the ensuing years. Tony developed diabetes when he was about 43 years old, and managed the disease fairly well for about 20 years. Complications began to surface following a 2007 summer vacation to national parks in Arizona and Utah, and about the time he and Terry built their small cabin in Fancy Gap, VA. Tony was still able to enjoy the cabin, the mountains and friends there, Enma and Pedro Pequeno and Lynn and Dan Donovan, among others, right up until the end of his life. It was his peaceful place! Words cannot express how we will miss our husband and dad. He was a crazy sweetheart! You are invited to join us as we gather to celebrate Tony's fantastic life on Sunday, April 9, at 2:00 p.m. at Pritchard Memorial Baptist Church, 1117 South Blvd. Instead of flowers, please consider a donation to the charity of one's choice. You may leave condolences on the J. B. Tallent Funeral Service and Crematory's website, . 4/9/2017 02:00 PM Celebration of Life Pritchard Memorial Baptist Church