Church on Kentucky Avenue fitting setting for goodbyes to famous UK fan
Friends and family will remember Lee Stewart, aka “Not Jerry Tipton,” at an appropriate location. Wednesday’s memorial service will be at a Birmingham, Ala., church located on Kentucky Avenue.
Stewart, whose Not Jerry Tipton persona grew to about 77,000 followers on Twitter, was born in Mayfield and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1992. He died at age 52 in the early morning on Saturday. The family is awaiting results of an autopsy.
Stewart worked as lawyer in the Birmingham law firm of Gaines Gault Hendrix.
His wife, Claire, called her husband’s Twitter persona a “fun outlet for him to use his personality and his wit to just keep his heart close to Kentucky and the game of basketball.”
Claire acknowledged not being a fan when Stewart began devoting his Twitter account as a booster of UK basketball and a biting critic of rival programs, particularly Louisville.
“I’ll be honest,” Claire said on Monday. “It kind of got on my nerves because he spent a lot of time doing it. Initially, I said, what are you doing? This is crazy. We’ve got three kids and you’re over there being snarky.”
The couple have three daughters: Avery, 17, Molly, 11, and Sidney, 6. When Avery was barely a year old, her parents decided it was time to find a church home. It was more than coincidence that they picked a church on Kentucky Avenue.
“Probably,” Claire said. “I like to think there were other reasons. But that probably was the deciding factor.”
The memorial service at the Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church will have access online at www.vhumc.org. Click on the “church online” tab in the top right corner and select “watch live stream.”
The service is scheduled to begin at noon EDT.
