Tribute to a football star

If you showed a picture of Peyton Manning to most people in this country and ask them if they know who he is, they would probably be able to tell you because he is a great football quarterback. Most certainly people in East Tennessee could tell you who he is. However, if you showed them the picture above and ask them who it is, you might hear, "Don't know, never saw him before." That is, unless you ask people who grew up in Eastern TN in the fifties and sixties. They would tell you, "Oh yes, that is "Cotton" Letner. He was a great football player."
I entered highschool in 1956 and because I had been a cheerleader in Jr. high and enjoyed it, I decided to try out for high school cheerleader. I did and I made it. Not only did I enjoy cheerleading but my father was a volunteer trainer for the high school football team and I thought it might give us something in common. We had little in common. One day I was rushing through the halls, dodging upper classmen to get to cheerleading practice and I heard a voice say,"Here comes that cute little "Little" girl"(my maiden name was Little). First, I could not believe that anyone would think I was cute and secondly, when I turned around and saw that it was, "Cotton" Letner, a star football and basketball player, I turned as red as the blouse I was wearing. That was the beginning. From that day on, on the football field, the bus rides to games or on campus, he teased me, talked to me and befriended me. He found out that I liked Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher so he started calling me, "Debbie" and told me to call him ,"Eddie" (his steady girlfriend didn't mind...I was like a little sister). I really think he could tell how insecure and intimidated I was by my peers especially upper classmen.
He was born, Robert Letner but everybody called him, "Cotton". We grew up in the same county in Eastern TN where we all had the necessities of life but not a lot of stuff and things. He stood tall, was muscular, had naturally curly sandy blonde hair and the most adorable dimples ever which were accented when he smiled. He was probably the best football and basketball player (football for sure) to ever play for Meigs County High School in Decatur, TN. After high school, he went on to play for the mighty Volunteers at the University of TN on a scholarship.
In the fall of 1959 I entered the University of Tennessee. I was well aware, as were most folks in East TN, that he was a UT football star and thought that he probably would not give me the time of day...after all, I was just a lowly Freshman and he was a Jr AND a big football star. The first week of school I was walking into the Student Center and I heard a voice, "Debbie", over here, it's me, "Eddie"." When I turned, there he stood smiling from ear to ear, books in hand, talking to some of his fellow football buddies. He called me over, introduced me, then put his arm around my shoulder and said, "Now, if you need anything you let me know and tell "The Preacher"(my Dad) that I'm gonna take care of ya." I walked away...all 5'2" 90lbs of me feeling 6 ft. tall. That was "Cotton"..that was how he was.
I have not seen him since college but he is the kind of guy you never forget. Yesterday, just a day after the class of '59 celebrated a 50th reunion, a fellow classmate sent me an e mail that read:
"Got word that Cotton Letner died today." I sobbed like a baby. He will be missed! Thank you "Cotton" for all the excitiing games but most of all Thanks for being a good friend!