DEL.ICIO.USWHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ... DEDRA GRIZZARD
Fourth wife is the keeper of Lewis Grizzard's flameThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/21/08
New acquaintances can't help asking Dedra Grizzard the same question: "Are you related to Lewis Grizzard?"
"Yes, I was his fourth wife. You know, he had a few," she tells them. "And I always say, 'I would like to think that I am the only one that matters, but he's not really here to defend that.' "
 Joey Ivansco/AJC | ||
| Dedra Grizzard, widow of Lewis Grizzard, looks after what she calls his 'intellectual property.' | ||
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It's been 14 years since Lewis Grizzard died after heart surgery, but the Southern humorist is still very much a part of Dedra's life.
She always has one of his books on her nightstand and sometimes listens to his tapes when she's alone in her car.
She wears his Hamilton watch and, about 95 percent of the time, the wedding band he gave her. She remarried in 1996, divorced four years later, and is single now.
"I just feel better when it's on," Dedra said.
Grizzard's old typewriter and a guitar given to him by Chet Atkins occupy places of honor in her antique-filled Atlanta home. A collection of columns about her daughter, Jordan, now 19, hangs in her bedroom.
"Lewis wrote a lot more about Jordan than he did about me," Dedra said, "He used to call me the lady he was keeping company with."
They'd been together four years when they were married in a hospital ceremony in 1994. Grizzard died four days later.
"He said, 'You're going to have to have the Grizzard name; without the Grizzard name, you have absolutely no power,' " Dedra said. "His mother and father were deceased; he had no brothers or sisters. ... He said, 'For my legacy, we have to.' So, we married in the hospital."
Since then, she has looked after what she calls Grizzard's "intellectual property."
She operates the Web site www.lewisgrizzard.com, called "an online tribute to a great American," and Bad Boot Productions Inc. with Lewis's friend and business manager, Steve Enoch.
A half-dozen times a year, she sees the Grizzard tribute act performed by Bill Oberst Jr., whom Dedra calls "my actor." She watches his mannerisms, making sure he's looking over his glasses just the way Lewis did.
She tries to tie in some of Oberst's performances to schools so they'll study Grizzard.
"My ultimate goal is to have him remembered as a great Southern writer," Dedra said.
Her immediate goal? Finding a publisher to get Grizzard's books back into print.
"If you loved Lewis, you want everything he's ever done," Dedra said. "It's like a cult almost. I want these books out there. People send me e-mails: 'I can't find them.' "
Grizzard dedicated the last book published while he was alive — "I took a Lickin' and Kept on Tickin' and Now I Believe In Miracles" — to his then-fiancee. It said, "To Dedra, the real survivor."
About six months ago, she was cleaning out a piece of furniture when she found the original piece of paper on which he'd typed the dedication.
"I found it smushed in the very, very back," she said. "It was just one of those moments where I just know that he's still with me a lot."
Dedra is now 47, the same age Lewis was when he died.
"I think about it all the time because I feel so young and so full of life," she said. "I just think: He was so very young and had such a reason to live."
Grizzard doted on Jordan, now a freshman at the University of Colorado.
"Lewis would die if he knew she was a Buffalo!" Dedra said.
She has another daughter, 10-year-old AnnaBelle, who has grown up steeped in Grizzard lore.
A gifted storyteller in her own right, Dedra had to stop appearing in "Grits and Grizzard" performances with Deborah Ford, author of "Grits: Girls Raised in the South."
"I get so nervous in front of people that I don't sleep or eat for weeks," she said. "It's just so difficult on me mentally that I can't do it."
She's working on developing an old family farm in Tennessee.
One day she wants to go to culinary school to become a chef and have her own business but can't afford it with Jordan in college.
In the meantime, she plays ALTA tennis at the fiercely competitive C-level. "It's her life," Jordan said. "It's her way of entertainment."
"I started when AnnaBelle was very young," Dedra said. "Because I've always worked out of my home and done Lewis stuff, tennis is my socialization."
As keeper of the Grizzard flame, she's always on call.
Recently, a former recipient of the Lewis Grizzard Scholarship was distressed because he couldn't find Grizzard's typewriter at the University of Georgia.
"He called to let me know that a sin has been committed in the journalism school," Dedra said.
She explained to him that the typewriter is in storage because of renovations.
"It's kind of bittersweet," Dedra said. "Because of the work that I do, Lewis is always with me. So, then, I can't quite move forward." She paused and laughed.
"I mean, I do, and I have ... I'm really a very happy, positive person, but, by staying with this, I constantly miss him. I miss his storytelling, his jokes and his ability to make me laugh. I mean Lewis could make me madder than — oh, I just can't even tell you — and then literally in 60 seconds, I could never stay mad at him."
But she wants to make it clear she's looking to the future, not living in the past.
"It's time."
What he missed
"He has missed so many great writing opportunities. He died right before the O.J. scandal. And I wonder what he would say about the political campaigns going on right now. There was actually a nurse in the ICU that looked like Hillary Clinton before he died. He was not fond of her. When she took care of him, she literally had to hide on the other side of the walls. I can only imagine!"
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