Samuel Tivvis Faggard

January 27 1989

Age 39, Houston, Austin, Denver, AIDS

     

above left, from This Week in Texas

I am told Tivvis is second from left
LUEY stood for Let Us Entertain You,
a long-running party weekend in Houston

For Samuel Tivvis Faggard
from Lesa Rosato Burson,
Birmingham, AL, 11/29/23

I went to high school with a boy on whom I had the biggest crush. He and I rode
the bus together and were good friends. At the time I did not understand how he
could not want to pursue a romantic relationship with me (since I was charming
at 16), and we had so much in common. His face lit up every time he saw me and
he made the bouncy, boring bus ride to and from school delightful. Sometimes he
came over and we'd listen to music and talk about the weighty events of the times.

After pining away for girlfriend status all through my high school years, right before
graduation I gathered the courage to ask why not. We sat on the living room floor,
backs to the wall, eyes straight ahead (only at first) and he came out to me.

His revealing his orientation explained so much and removed that heartache of
unrequited love I'd carried inside. In 1972 it took a lot of trust to be himself around
me, and he gave me that gift. Our friendship - for the remaining time we had in
Birmingham - only deepened.

After he graduated high school he moved away, and left Birmingham, AL behind him.
I left our hometown soon after. I'd heard he moved to Texas, but no one seemed
to know how to find him (pre-social media).

Thank you so much for giving me the answer to 'whatever happened' to Tivvis.
I presumed he had passed on, or had chosen to remain removed from the hometown
where he was so misunderstood, but I never found anything online that mentioned
him. It's as if he disappeared from the face of the earth, and no one cared he had left.

The other evening I did another online search. At the age of 69 one can become
preoccupied by the "what ifs " and "what abouts..." It was wonderful to see him
remembered in your project. Tivvis was an exceptionally loving, beautiful, intelligent,
kind-hearted, sensitive and precious human being.

From the photo in his obit, I can see he remained handsome as ever, and from the
group photo below it, it appears he found his place in the world.

Thanks for rescuing his memory, and those of so many others the world forgot.