Edward R. “Ted” Carskadden passed away at his home in McKinney, Texas on February 18, 2020, at the age of 73. Ted was born Friday, December 13th, 1946 to Thomas Rush and Vera Evelyn Carskadden in Marion, Ohio. When he was young, his family moved to Pensacola, Florida, where he spent much of his time exploring the Panhandle wilderness, bays, and bayous with his brother Tom, their dog, and some lifelong friends. He broke a few bones playing football. He ran track, taking hurdles at speed. There’s at least one good story about boxing.
Following Pensacola High School, Ted went to Mississippi College and studied marketing, and then opportunity took him on to Atlanta and family took him back to Pensacola. He must have just missed the love of his life Elizabeth in Atlanta, but she made it to Pensacola anyway, on spring break from her teaching position and visiting mutual friends. They danced at Rosie O’Grady’s in the Seville Quarter, and they were good at it, but somehow they both ended up falling in the sawdust and peanut shells on the floor. They debated books late into the night and Elizabeth steered while Ted pushed his Charger down the street to start it without waking anyone up. By August, she was in Pensacola, and on April 15th the next year, they were married. Elizabeth remembers their first boat together, how Ted shot out across that old Florida bayou in fog so thick you could chew it. She couldn’t see a thing, but he had a knack for knowing where he was, where he was going. Those waters were just the first of many he’d know like the back of his hand.
His long career in the furniture industry led him to move his family to many different places around the country, making dear friends and wonderful memories along the way. He worked department store floors as a kid in college and built factories as an owner. He was a salesman. He was a CEO. Some of the friends he made in his career became an extended family, meeting up at furniture industry events every year and joining each other for family milestones. One winter in Virginia, some of these friends were visiting Ted, Elizabeth, and their young family, when they all got snowed in. Far from a hardship, everyone settled in to play cards, tell jokes, and share stories. Ted pulled a wooden sled out over the snow to get more food and liquid supplies.
Over the years, Ted and his family lived in 20 homes across 10 different states - including another stop in Mississippi. His love for Mississippi was most evident in his lifelong enthusiasm for Ole Miss athletics. In his time in Oxford, he was a regular in The Grove and popular at haunts around town, known to pass a cold beverage or two to the likes of Eli and Deuce. Ted’s daughter, Carrie, went to Ole Miss, where all of her friends called her dad “Ted” and looked for him at City Grocery. When LSU took the national championship in 2019, Ted sent his son Rush, a Tiger, a picture of himself with former Ole Miss Coach Ed Orgeron, along with a note about timing being everything. Somewhere, there’s probably a picture of Ted shaking hands with every Ole Miss coach of this era, and he’d be the first to say that might have been a few. When they lived in Jackson, Ted and Elizabeth joined the yacht club there, where they met many fast friends and had more than a few adventures. On one trip across the Gulf, Ted and friends were getting ready to relax for the night off of a coastal island when they lost their anchor. They made a beeline for the nearest mainland channel. They didn’t realize they were speeding towards a naval base in restricted waters until a couple of patrol boats came up alongside them and motioned for them to stop. After some hasty explanations and good-natured ribbing, Ted and crew were escorted to base to tie up for the night, and were joined for steaks and cocktails on the deck by a few of the off-duty folks on base. Ted loved people, and never walked past an opportunity to get the details right. This is how you would meet him: He would sit next to you and ask you about your day. He would carry your bags from your cab and hold the door. He would see you coming into the dock at a bad angle and run over to help. He never stood in a line without making someone laugh.
If you knew Ted, you knew he was endlessly proud of his four granddaughters, Madison and Merit (daughters of Carrie and Dustin Metcalf), and Dorothy and Lane (daughters of Rush and Morgan). He celebrated their successes and supported them through their challenges, as he had with his own children. Every chance he got, he spoiled all of them - and their dogs - with his love. He entertained them with his stories. Good men are missed when they go and Ted will be in our stories forever.
We’ll be telling some of those stories at a memorial service at 2:00 p.m., Friday, March 6, 2020 at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home, 2525 Central Expressway North in Allen, Texas. The memorial service will be followed by a happy hour in his honor at 4:00 p.m. at nearby Eldorado Country Club.