Uncle Ted

My Uncle Ted died wealthy
All that money was hard won
My Uncle Ted died lonely
In the end he pushed away everyone

It was in the town of Andrews
It was 1963
He wed his high school sweetheart
Mom's sister, Vonda Dean
They put themselves through college
Way out in Alpine
Where the trains snake through the desert
And the coyotes' echoes chime

Deannie was a teacher
And Ted, he worked the fields
He got the oilmen what they asked for
Cut himself in on the deals
When Teddy made the big time
We looked up to him with pride
No one then suspected
What he had going on the side

When he stayed late at the office
He never bothered to explain
When I saw what he was selling
Well, it was more than pumps and chain
I guess I wasn't too surprised
When he brought home the office girl
But Deannie was devastated
When they tore apart her world

We could tell this girl was trouble
But she played on Teddy's pride
Later on we found out
Her first husband was a suicide
She turned him against us
One by one we drifted away
My uncle made his choices
And there was nothing we could say

In a hospital in Houston
With his Texas trophy wife
And her nephew lawyer waiting
As Teddy clung to life
She would not leave his bedside
Till he signed the brand new will
She's living up in Dallas now
In a mansion on a hill

There was no one else around him
In the hour of his death
It was my hand that he trusted
When he took his dying breath
From a man who left his family
From this man once so proud
Something like an apology
That he could never say out loud

My Uncle Ted died wealthy
All that money was hard won
My Uncle Ted died lonely
In the end he pushed away everyone