From my early childhood I always though that I was kind of related to Lew Dee. My aunt Ruth Lewis was the sales manager for KSEL in their heyday, back when the TTO show was hotter than fire. I grew up in Floydada and we all listened to Lew, Bill, and Paul every morning hanging on to every word they said. During high school football season, we really listened closely because they might have mentioned the Floydada Whirlwinds, and when they did you would have thought we'd struck gold. I was lucky enough to have attended a few of my aunt's Christmas party's and Lew was always there. Little did I know then that I would be lucky enough to work beside him at some point in the future. When I was working afternoon drive on FMX, Lew would drop by almost every afternoon, set down in the control room with me, and we'd laugh about radio stuff. Lew was as interested in my radio career as I was his. Those times now are priceless. I would put him on the air with me and you could see it made Lew really happy. Like a lot of folks I was lucky enough to see the Saturday Night Horror shows... but I lived in Floydada and back then you had to have the special UHF antennae to pick up the station. The signal drifted in and out, but we were right there watching every moment...Little did Lew know that show would create so many incredible memories for so many people.
It wasn't but a couple of months ago I ran into Lew at Cheddar's and you would have thought that true Royalty walked in the door when Lew arrived. That is what was really cool about Lew Dee. Lew surrounded himself with talented people.
I would not have met Mike Deardorff who was as big a mentor to me as Lew was if it wasn't for Lew. Lew has passed and with him goes one of my very favorite things about the radio business. I wished that Lew could have been put on the West Texas Walk of Fame while he was still around to enjoy it. I think this is one case where whoever makes these choices should move Lew to the top of the list. Yes, he deserves to be there. Our Lord will be busy today. No one ever said that Lew wasn't high maintenance now and then. That's what made Lew....Lew.

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