For decades, Alvin “Red” Bassham of Boyd brought many smiles to the young and old alike through his disguises. During the holiday season, Red and his sweet wife, Carolyn, visited area nursing homes, daycares and banks dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Erika Pedroza

The couple also elicited smiles and laughter at birthday parties, reading programs and community events such as Big Red-O and Shy Violet the clowns.

In between, they spread their happiness with their warm smiles and heartfelt hugs.

“Alvin had so many friends, even I could hardly believe it,” his bride said. “His friends came from every walk of life, and he saw no race or color. People would come and tell me how he had befriended them at some time. Everyone said he was such an inspiration.

“He fought so hard to live, but at the end when he realized he couldn’t, then he asked for prayers that he could go home and be out of pain,” she continued. “But he laughed and teased, no matter how sick he was at the Cancer Center through four different kinds of chemos. He always had such a pleasant attitude that the people there were quite attached to him. It was the hardest nine months of my life.”

I met the couple in December 2010 while working on a feature story about a rocking chair they had lost more than 25 years before. Unbeknownst to them, a couple they knew had actually recovered, repaired and kept the chair.

The revelation was made during a conversation at the bank more than a quarter-of-a-century later and a few weeks after that, the Basshams got to see their chair again.

Thereafter, whenever I saw the charismatic couple around town at the grocery store or in the bank, they greeted me with warm embraces and beaming smiles.

Last summer Alvin was diagnosed with cancer. Although he “fought an unbelievable fight for life for 10 months,” his sweetheart said, he passed away May 28, 2012, at his home in Boyd.

Alvin’s health prevented him from playing Santa, during the holiday season that year.

“He was just so heartbroken,” Carolyn said. “He loved people in general, but he had a great love for kids and making them smile.”

Big Red-O’s family members have made sure that his memory will continue to bring smiles.

Shortly after Red’s death, family friends established a memorial account at First Financial Bank in Boyd for memorials in lieu of flowers. A few weeks later, Carolyn and her children decided to make Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth its benefactor.

“That is where most people in this area take their ill children,” Carolyn said. “And this will be his way to make them smile and feel a little better.”

To donate, visit First Financial Bank in Boyd, Bridgeport or Decatur or visit www.forevermissed.com/alvin-red-bassham#about.

By Erika Pedroza | Published Sunday, December 26, 2010

During the season in which the Basshams of Boyd are known to spread holiday cheer disguised as Santa and Mrs. Claus, cheer was delivered to them.

After being separated from a beloved rocking chair for more than 25 years, Alvin and Carolyn Bassham were reunited with the artifact Wednesday, thanks to Pam and Sammy Williams, also of Boyd.

“I thought that was almost like a miracle – that it was recovered by people we knew,” Carolyn said. “I just couldn’t believe it.”

In anticipation of their first grandchild, Alvin bought his wife a grandma rocking chair in October of 1972.

At the time, the couple lived in Haltom City, and in 1984, they decided to move back to Alvin’s hometown. In transport, wind caught the chair and flung it out of the truck bed.

“My oldest son was driving the pickup ahead of us so I saw it all,” Carolyn said. “I just knew it was gone. I was just so heartbroken, just kind of devastated. And I was a little bit angry because they didn’t tie it down.”

Having a full load, the family continued on to their new home, with intentions to return and retrieve the pieces of the chair.

However, when the Basshams went back, the pieces of the chair were gone.

“I thought it was gone for sure,” Carolyn said. “I hadn’t thought about it in years. I always would remember it, but I wouldn’t go around thinking about it. Because I thought it was trash many years ago.”

However, Sammy happened to drive by behind the Basshams that afternoon, and he recovered the chair.

“It was in pretty bad shape,” Sammy said. “You can see all the places where it was pieced back together.”

But with a little carpentry, Sammy was able to repair the chair, close to its original state.

“There’s a crack in the left arm,” Pam said. “And down on the bottom, you can kinda see where Sammy took wood putty and filled spots that were broken. But he painted over it. But it looks pretty good.”

When Alvin bought the chair, he took a nail and a hammer and added their names and the date to the bottom of the seat.

This personalization facilitated the reunion between the Basshams and their beloved rocker.

“I’ve known them for about 18 years, but I only knew them as Mr. and Mrs. Bassham,” Pam said. “But when I learned her name, that’s when it dawned on me.”

The Basshams were in First Financial Bank in Boyd when Pam approached them about an artifact her husband recovered from the side of Keeter Road a number of years ago.

“As soon as I said ‘chair,’ she said, ‘my rocking chair,’” Pam said. “Then these big ol’ tears welled up in her eyes. And I knew it was theirs.”

On Wednesday, the Basshams saw their chair for the first time in 26 years.

“I didn’t expect it to look as good as it did,” Carolyn added. “I saw it hit the ground. I cannot imagine how it survived. He repaired it unbelievably [well].”

When Pam asked Carolyn if she wanted her chair back, Carolyn turned down the offer, taking comfort in the fact that her grandma rocking chair was being used as intended.

“I am just so thrilled and happy to know that old chair found a home and is still giving comfort,” Carolyn said. “She said they went through children and grandchildren with it. And that made me happy, to think that it wasn’t just trashed somewhere.”

Pam assured the Basshams the chair provided comfort in her home, just as it did in theirs.

“We love the chair,” Pam said. “We’ve bought new furniture and gotten rid of furniture but the chair has remained here. We’ve taken good care of it. It’s like part of our family.”

With the Basshams, the chair rocked the first three of their 11 grandchildren, now 36, 34 and 28 years old.

At the Williams’ residence, five kids between the ages of 4 and 40 and four grandchildren between  seven and 16 spent time in the rocking chair.

“The chair went through all of the kids,” Pam said. “It’s like a comfort chair. But the chair has been through a lot for a chair.”

In addition to withstanding the fall out of a truck bed and a number of kids, the chair endured an electrical fire that totaled the Williams’ home in 2002.

“We got all of his guns out, all of our clothes and an antique sewing machine [inherited from her grandfather], along with the rocking chair,” Pam said. “That shows how special it is to us. But the fact that it survived a fire, too – that shows that the chair is meant to be here.”