They called him “Good-Time Charlie” because Charles Hudson Stribling loved to amuse family and friends with his tall tales.
He took those homespun yarns from the backyard to the radio and became a two-time winner of the Ludlow Porch Liar’s Club contest. His gift of gab and quick wit also made him a successful salesman. He never saw a sad face that he didn’t leave with a smile, friends said.
“He could tell stories all day long. He would just spit them out. When he did, he busted us all up,” said longtime friend William “Red” Murphey of Avondale Estates. “He was a good salesman because he had the ability to get along with people. I will miss the camaraderie. He was just a great guy.”
Stribling died May 8 at his home in Avondale Estates after a long illness. He was 83. His funeral was May 12 at Decatur Presbyterian Church.
Born Dec. 13, 1931, Stribling started telling stories and making mischief while growing up in Eatonton, Ga. His father was a mechanic and owner of Stribling’s Garage, the town’s only gas station at the time.
As the youngest child with much-older siblings, he quickly learned to entertain himself. He loved to scare his friends with stories about sightings of Eatonton’s famous ghost Sylvia.
When Stribling was 8, he traveled with relatives to the 1939 World’s Fair in New York and got to sit on the lap of Babe Ruth.
After high school, Stribling attended the Citadel for a year, then transferred to Emory University where he earned a business degree in 1952. He joined the Army and served until 1955.
In 1957, he married Anna Avil in Decatur. They had four kids and built a home in Stone Mountain that became a favorite of the neighborhood children. His wife provided free haircuts, cakes and sandwiches. Stribling gave everyone a nickname, told funny stories and offered fatherly advice. His wife died in 2012.
“It was the fun house. They really cared about everybody and welcomed everybody,” said Mindy Vetter of Lancaster, Calif., best friend of Stribling’s oldest daughter Ashley. “He never complained about the teenagers eating all their food. He was always chewing gum and jingling change in his pocket. He would have everybody laughing. He was a character.”
Stribling started his sales career selling building products for CertainTeed. After a decade with the Donahue Sales Corp., a New York-based retail distributor of Talon zippers, he built a successful independent business as a manufacturers’ representative, with clients such as Fiskar Scissors and Hancock Fabrics.
“Dad was a go-getter,” said his son Reeves Stribling of Lawrenceville. “He worked hard to put our sisters through college and to help my brother and me start our businesses.”
When he was home, the kids would wait quietly at the dinner table while he completed sales calls on the kitchen phone. Then the family fun would begin. “He’d finish work and turn to me and ask if I had a rough day at play today,” Reeves said. “He’d always say don’t grow up too fast. You’ve got the rest of your life to be grown. He wanted us to have a happy balance.”
Their home was always filled with laughter, thanks to her father’s funny stories, antics and dancing, said Suzanna Stribling of Decatur.
He took time to attend every wrestling match and to coach his sons’ street hockey games. While away at summer camp, his daughters received his typewritten letters, supposedly written and signed by their horses. “Dad would say in the letters, ‘It’s really difficult to type with these hooves.’ We thought it was hysterical,” Suzanna said.
During summer vacations to Jekyll Island with other Avondale Estates families, Stribling regaled the group with outrageous tales about his boyhood adventures and experiences as a traveling salesman.
One of his winning stories for the Ludlow Porch Liar’s Club was about how he and his mule won a national corn-picking contest. “He said he and his mule were so fast that he could pick corn while his mule was at a trot,” Reeves said. “I can’t tell it the way he did. But it was hilarious. Storytelling was a big part of Southern culture. It’s a lost art.”
The humorist also had a heart for helping people.
As empty nesters, Stribling and his wife helped a Vietnamese family get settled in metro Atlanta. When Vetter’s parents divorced and moved out of town after she finished high school, the Striblings took her in until she found her own place.
“He was like another father. He worried about me like I was his own daughter,” Vetter said. “When I became an adult and had children, I modeled my parenting after them. I prepared food and gave my kids’ friends a place to go just like they did. That way you know where they are. It was my way of paying it forward. You have to invest time into children. He was a very kind-hearted, giving man.”
In addition to Suzanna and Reeves, Stribling is survived by his daughter Ashley McLaughlin of Birmingham, his son Robert Stribling of Monroe and 11 grandchildren.
About the Author
