Chuck Williams: Big Ben Reeves lived life large

Big Ben Reeves was indeed a sport model.

That’s what his son, Adam, called him Friday afternoon as mourners gathered to pay respects to Mr. Ben, who died last week about a month shy of his 79th birthday.

Sport model? No doubt. But I always thought of Mr. Ben as a classic you know, something Elvis would have owned.

He was a lot of things to a lot of people.

He was a big man, with a big voice and large presence. He owned a room whether it was in the church or at his waterfront home on Lake Eufaula when he entered it. He wasn’t the kind of guy who sucked the life out of a place; he brought an air all his own.

He knew everybody and they knew him. If he didn’t know you, before you left the room he was your buddy, his arm was around your shoulder and he was telling you a story or two.

And he had some stories.

He squeezed all there was to get out of his nearly eight decades. Was he perfect? No. But he was perfectly delightful.

He was a politician early in his life, being elected president of the University of Alabama Student Government Association. Once a politician, always a politician.

He was a district attorney, an elected position in Barbour and Bullock Counties. In the 1970s, Mr. Ben ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Congress, giving his best shot at unseating an entrenched incumbent. He almost won and would have fit in well in Washington, D.C. If anyone was cut out for the life of a congressman, it was Ben Reeves. He was at home with a stiff drink in his hand and any kind of conversation.

Even at the end, his political ties were obvious. Not many folks could have a sitting U.S. senator Richard Shelby spend nearly two hours at a funeral service the day after Christmas.

Mr. Ben did.

But he was more than a politician which is what separated him from many politicians. Politics didn’t define him.

He and his father, Mr. Mac Reeves, built a successful peanut brokerage business in Eufaula. The stone that marks the Reeves family plot in Fairview Cemetery pays homage to that history with peanuts carved into it.

He was a husband, father and grandfather.

How many men can say they married a University of Alabama homecoming queen and then a generation later watched as his daughter became homecoming queen at The University?

Nobody but Mr. Ben.

Because Charlotte Adams Reeves and Mary Mac Reeves are the only mother-daughter combo to hold that honor.

He was a philanthropist. The Lakeside School is built on Reeves family land. So is the Eufaula Community Center.

The day after Christmas, hundreds filled St. James Episcopal Church on historic North Eufaula Avenue to say goodbye to a favorite son. The church was an appropriate place for the journey to end. With two of his grandsons serving as acolytes, he was remembered in an honest and at times laugh-out-loud way.

There was nothing stoic about this Episcopal send off.

That church has been a constant in his life third pew, right side was his perch. As a young acolyte, I can remember seeing him and his family in that spot many, many times. As an adult visiting my mother’s church, I would always see him on the third pew, right side.

At some places, you just don’t move the furniture.

Mr. Ben also worshiped Alabama football, the way many in the state do. But he did it with style and flair. And he did it first class. Come to think of it, Mr. Ben did damn near everything first class.

He would rent hotel ballrooms in Birmingham for parties after the Alabama-Auburn game.

In 2010, the Crimson Tide went to Pasadena to play for the national title. Despite health problems and travel challenges, Mr. Ben took Miss Charlotte “Miss Alabama is going to be there when they win it all,” he said and three of his four kids. The oldest Little Ben, the current Barbour-Bullock County district attorney was left at home. Three decades earlier, Little Ben made the decision to go to Auburn rather than Alabama. In January 2010, he paid a price for that decision.

But Big Ben was nothing if he wasn’t fair. A year later when Auburn played for the national title in Arizona, he sent Little Ben and his family.

That was classic Mr. Ben.

This story was originally published December 29, 2014 at 4:25 PM with the headline "Chuck Williams: Big Ben Reeves lived life large."