SubmittedBuck Killian of the Pine Hills community in Clarke County was an outstanding sportsmen. He died on Veterans Day.

A pack of Walker hounds were barking, bawling and burning up a hot deer trail in the woods of Webster County and bearing down on my stand as I waited in rapt anticipation of the buck that was sure to bust out any second.

“Tic-boom!” Roared Buck Killian’s 30 06 rifle and the buck collapsed in a heap. Unbeknownst to me Claude, or Buster, as he was also known, had taken up a stand near a creek crossing and he quickly dispatched the buck before he made it to me.

Buck Killian was a man among men who went out of his way to help me when I was still a teenager and throughout my years of college. Raised in the Pine Hill community just south of Enterprise, Killian married Ernestine Nolen, my Paw Paw Pat’s niece from Eupora and eventually settled on the old home place a few miles to the east of Lodi.

Back during my senior year of college Mississippi had a buck a day limit and Buck’s nickname fit him to a T. It was a well-earned nickname because he was surely a talented hunter who harvested an untold number of bucks and helped me drag out a few, too. He actually helped me skin a few bucks and made me feel like I was at home when I came up to the old homeplace to hunt.

Talented angler and hunter

Buck loved the outdoors as much as any country boy who ever lived and he took full advantage of the bountiful Mississippi outdoors, while harvesting or catching just about everything that crawled, walked, flew, or swam in the woods or on the waters.

On one occasion I joined him and his father-in-law, J.W. Nolen, in the flooded backwaters of Grenada Lake one late spring morning. Buck and Uncle J had a bucket of minnows and cane poles and they went to work plucking those succulent crappie from the flooded timber. Man, what a day we had.

On more than one occasion we shared meals together and cousin Ernie cooked up some of the finest wild game fare and fish dinners that you could ever imagine. There was nothing better than sitting down with the Kilian’s for fried squirrel, brown gravy and cathead biscuits. As talented as he was at catching and killing, she was equally up for the task of making them into a meal fit for a King!

After retiring Killian moved back near his old homeplace in the Pine Hill community and shifted into another role, being a paw paw to his many grandchildren and great grandchildren. While Killian still pursued fish and game, his focus turned more toward his family and seeing that they were successful in their outdoors endeavors and life. His passion was passed on to the lives of his grandchildren as well.

On more than one occasion I stopped by for a plate of fried squirrels, gravy and homemade biscuits. The squirrels were tender and had usually been taken from the woods straight to the table with no freezing required. In addition to growing vegetables, he also had to keep the varmints out of the garden and pecan trees, so he was rarely without some fresh meat.

Veterans Day tribute

As an 85-year-old veteran, and minister, who served in Korea, Buck Killian got up on veteran’s day and had breakfast with his wife and then went to work doing things that he enjoyed and that meant working around his place.

“Buster always told me that, ‘if I die of heat stroke or something else while I’m outside working or hunting, then just know that I died happy’,” said Ernestine Killian.

Killian lived life with a passion and went out the same way he’d lived- wide open, as he crossed the finish line of life while having an untimely accident on veteran’s day. While we are never ready to lose our loved ones it is fitting when they are able to leave this world with their boots on doing what they love. Claude Killian loved his wife, family and his fellow man and never questioned his place in the world as he helped others along the way.

“We know where he’s at now and it’s going to be all right,” Ernestine Killian said. ‘We were married almost 63 years and I know we’ll see him again one day soon.”

Go rest high on that mountain, Buck. You’ve run the good race and ran through the finish line!

Call Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comast.net.