VanHoose: Bad news about Cowboy Tom

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The subject line of an e-mail I received two weeks ago caught me off guard.

"Benefit for the Family of Tom Walker."

Wait a minute. Tom Walker couldn't be dead. It seemed like yesterday when he and I were talking about doing an upcoming story. I still had an e-mail from him in my inbox.

About this time last year, I met Walker outside of Our Daily Bread. He was a homeless street musician and couldn't be happier, singing songs he wrote for Jesus - he called him Yeshua - and a few Dylan covers. He wore a cowboy hat and told me all about a screenplay he was writing, rightly titled "Cowboy Tom."

For a guy who was down, I've never met someone so up. He was so cheerful, some homeless advocates complained when I featured him in the story I was working on. He wasn't a good example of the homeless in Athens, I was told.

Sure he wasn't. Walker talked like he was sitting on top of the world. He loved his life, he loved Athens, and he certainly loved the people around these parts.

I had no idea if he'd ever pull off any of the big plans he had, but he sure sounded like he was well on his way.

And now, there was that e-mail staring me in the face: "Benefit for the Family of Tom Walker."

He died during the AthFest weekend in June while I was paying attention to other things. Hit by a train on the north side of town.

Unbelievable.

As it turns out, Walker had a lot of family here, and most of them weren't bound in blood. He appears to have touched the lives of college students, local musicians and at least one newspaper reporter.

At 10 p.m. Thursday, many of them will get together at Barnette's o

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