Edward T. Butterfield

Edward T. was the head mechanic at Forum Bowling Lanes in Grand Prairie Texas for most of his adult life. He started in 1979 as a pin chaser and moved up the ranks to Head Mechanic. Ed was very good at his job. He was a jack of all trades from working on the A2’s, the lane machine, to electrical, ice machines & Air conditioning if it was broke he could fix it and if not he knew who could.

Edward’s passions included but not limited to Deer Hunting, Nascar , bowling and the Kentucky Derby. He was a daily fixture at his third home which was No Frills Bar & Grill. He was also a lover of dogs and watched the puppy bowl every year before the super bowl.

He was preceded in death by his father, Charles Sr, mother, Mary Jane, brother, Charles Jr, and his two boys, (dogs) Radar and Sonar.

Survivors include: brother, Timothy Butterfield of Dwight Il, Sisters, Mary Marlene Walls & Holly Waldron of Morris, Il and brother, Barry Butterfield of Morris, Il, numerous nieces and nephews, his work family from Forum Bowl and friends from No Frills.

Services will be Thursday August 25, 2016 from 6-8 pm at Bean, Massey and Burge, 2951 S. Beltline Rd, Grand Prairie, Texas 75052.

In lieu of flowers you can make donations in Ed’s memory at Animal Angels P.O. Box 336, Jacksboro, Texas 76458or online at: www.animalangelstexas.org

Eulogy:

What can we say about Ed Butterfield. First off if Big Ed was your friend you had a friend for life, there was nothing that Ed wouldn’t do for one of his friends. Second he was a man of integrity and one of the hardest working people we knew. He had worked at Forum Bowl forever; he started out as a pin chaser and worked his way up until he became the head mechanic and not just a head mechanic but the best in the business. If there was a tournament at Forum Ed would come in at 3am to run the lanes just in case there was a problem with the lane machine or a lane itself that needed to be fixed then he would go home and nap and come back when the tournament started. He was so good at his job that he could tell you if there was a problem with a machine before there was a problem and would usually fix it without anyone being the wiser. He was a jack of all trades from mechanic to electrical, AC, ice machines you name it he could do it and if he couldn’t he knew someone that could.

The best quality of Ed was his love for dogs. When Radar and Sonar were still here he would stop in at McDonalds everyday and buy them a happy meal. When it was summer he would buy them a pool so they could swim and at Christmas wrap up toys for them to open. They were his children and took it so hard when each of them left for the Rainbow Bridge. His love for dogs was well known. During the super bowl Animal Planet started broadcasting the Puppy Bowl. Teresa (T) will never forget the first time he watched it, he called her at home and said “T turn on Animal Planet and I will call you right back”. So she did and it was the Puppy Bowl, he called back and was going on and on about these puppies playing football. It was hysterical. Every year since then he and his buddies would make friendly wagers on what team was going to win. He did not usually pick the winning team. This past year T asked him which team he was wagering on this year and he said “Team Fluff” who by the way won, when we got to work on Monday she asked him how it felt to win and he said he had changed his mind and went with the other team, she told him in the future that she will bet him and take the opposite team just so she could win. He laughed that boisterous laugh and agreed.

He loved hunting season he could not wait for November to start Deer season, but it never failed the bowl would book something on that weekend usually a big tournament or TCBA and he would always say “shocker” (one of his favorite sayings), you know that’s the start of season, we would apologize he would laugh but he was always here.

He was a huge fan of Nascar especially #3 Dale Earndhart, as you can tell from some of his things here. When Earndhart passed away we sat at a table at work and watched the funeral he was very somber and a glint of a tear in his eye.

His other passion was the Kentucky Derby. He would have the office make copies of the paper for each of us so we could figure out who to place a bet on. If we happened to go to the race he would give us money to place his bets. The last few years he did it. He would always try to bet on his buddies nephew Mike Smith. He is a jockey.

Ed had a habit of calling his friends his buddy. It was my hunting buddy or my buddy from frills always his buddy. At one point you thought maybe its all the same guy, truth is that he had a lot of buddies that loved him for just being himself. He was loud and proud. If he would call you from frills about something he thought of for work or a solution to a problem from work he would call all excited and he would constantly say ummm, ummm, ummm, before he could get out what he wanted to say.

On Sunday’s he would always bring in the Sunday paper, actually every day he brought in a paper and sat at his table to read it. But on Sundays he would share the coupons with Chris and if there were not enough coupons in the paper he would tell him “looks like the soup kitchen this week”. That was classic Ed humor.

There will never be another Edward T….. he was one of a kind so we will end this with one of his favorite sayings, “See ya later bye”