His logo was a man swinging an oversized toothbrush as a golf club. His office telephone number was 487-T.Tym. A mural in his office depicted golfers in a water hazard wearing a child's inner tube and up a tree retrieving a golf ball from a bird's nest. Overhead, an airplane flew the banner "Adult Dentistry for a Golfing Community."

No wonder Dr. Alvin A. Shure of Peachtree City was known as the golfing dentist.

Used with permission of Dr. Shure's Estate (ENLARGE)

Dr. Alvin Shure sent this PT-109 gag line to cartoonist Eldon Dedini who created this cartoon published in Esquire magazine's March 1962 issue.

Family photo (ENLARGE)

Dr. Alvin A. Shure was the golfing, joking, singing and Santa Claus dentist, right up to age 90.

Just as legitimately, he could have been called the singing dentist, the funny dentist or the Santa Claus dentist.

Dr. Shure, whose first desire was to be a crooner à la Frank Sinatra, submitted gags to famous cartoonists who illustrated them. Dr. Shure's cartoon captions were published in Esquire, The New Yorker and Saturday Evening Post magazines. He had a friendship with Eldon Dedini, noted for his satyr cartoons in Esquire, and that connected him to President John F. Kennedy.

The memorial service for Dr. Shure, 93, who died at his Peachtree City residence July 19, will be 11 a.m. Saturday at Carl J. Mowell & Son Funeral Home, Peachtree City.

The son of Russian immigrants, Dr. Shure wanted to be a singer but his parents insisted that he have a profession, said his daughter Sharon Shure of Peachtree City. He graduated from Emory University's old Atlanta Southern Dental College in 1943, but never gave up singing and writing songs.

"If he was drilling your teeth, he was singing an old song," said his friend Pat DeGross of Sharpsburg. "It didn't have to be a song. He sang little ditties. He would make it up."

"He was the best dentist who ever put crowns or fillings in my mouth," she added.

Dr. Shure began his practice in Savannah where, in 1948, he showed movies to patients while he fixed their teeth, according to an Atlanta Journal article. He moved his practice to metro Atlanta in 1967, settled in Peachtree City 18 years ago and practiced till he was 90. His ads in the community newspaper featured a humor column, his toothbrush golfing logo and T.Tym telephone number.

"My husband was very, very quick-witted, but nobody could best Dr. Shure," Ms. DeGross said.

Cartoonists appreciated his wit. In a 2003 letter to Dr. Shure, Mr. Dedini recounted how they met in the 1960s. "You sent me a gag about John Kennedy & a PT boat in the Pacific War. I sold the drawing to Esquire." They sent the original draft of the cartoon to President Kennedy, who signed and returned it, his daughter said.

Framed together, Dr. Shure proudly displayed an Esquire copy of the cartoon, the drawing signed by the president, the president's note and even the White House envelope, Ms. Shure said.

Humor was the hobby that pervaded his life. At Christmas, Dr. Shure decorated every surface in his house, and friends dropped in for a visit and a look. The price of admission was a new, unwrapped toy he donated to Toys for Tots.

She was most impressed when Dr. Shure moved the Christmas open house into the shopping center where he had his office, Ms. DeGross said. He persuaded the management to donate two empty stores, which he covered with seasonal decorations, opened to the community and collected even more toys for tots.

He was eclectic in selecting his Christmas decorations. "He had anything you can imagine from porcelain to Wal-Mart," his daughter said. "Whatever he saw that was Christmasy, he'd buy it."

Even the bathroom was decorated — with humor. Dr. Shure had Santa Claus in the tub taking a bubble bath, complete with yellow rubber ducks. "When you lifted the toilet seat," Ms. DeGross said, "it went Ho, Ho, Ho."

Survivors include another daughter, Sherylan Lipham of Ellenwood; a son, Al Shure of Tucker; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.