Joseph Taylor Keeton was born on October 11, 1966, to Thomas and Rita Keeton in Wichita, Kansas.

The virtues of the dead are always magnified, but when we say our dad was special, I mean our dad was special. He was unusually intelligent, insightful, and talented. He played musical instruments beautifully without any formal training. He was a deeply creative artist, a cinephile, and a spiritual man. He had skyscraper dreams of being a Hollywood director and went to grad school for film. But the one thing people remember most about him was how incredibly funny and animated he was.  If you could liken him to any celebrity, it would be Jack Black. Our happiest memories as children were with our dad-how happy he was to see us, how affectionate and playful he was, how much we laughed when he would pin us down and fart on us.  He was an amazing older brother to his much younger sisters, Heather and Autumn. He was also athletically skilled and excelled in every sport he played. He was charismatic, loved animals, and he could be incredibly empathetic and compassionate.  He was also a fox, very good-looking, and almost pursued a modeling career. This was Joe Keeton when he was healthy, happy and free.

Addiction and mental illness gripped our dad, and he spent the last several years of his life unhouse and struggling on the streets of Bend and Silverton.

He remained kind, funny, insightful and creative. He was well loved. He lived and traveled so much and found so many different communities. He was a child, then a problematic teenager, then a devoted father and husband and churchgoer, then a grad student making films and finally, a wanderer.

He lived in Kansas, California, Alaska, Colorado, Washington, Utah, Idaho, New York, Oklahoma, Illinois, Virginia, Texas, Arizona, Montana and finally Oregon, where he spent time in his youth. I'm sure there are others we either don't know about or are forgetting.

He is and will be so greatly missed. We hope that his story will inspire people to be kinder, more generous and more compassionate to the houseless people they encounter on the street. A smile and a dollar may not mean much to you, but it means the world to somebody who has nothing.

We Love you so damn much, Dad.

Joseph Taylor Keeton is survived by his father, Tom Keeton (77), his sisters Heather (45)and Autumn(43), his children Kansas(34), Jenna(33), Dani (30), and LeeAnna (10), his grandchildren Leif(7), Aries(6) and Maddox(11), and last but not least, his life partner, Jackie.

EPITAPH

When I die,

Give what's left of me to children

And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,

Cry for your brother walking the street

Beside you.

When you need me,

Put your arms around anyone

And give them what you need to give me.

I want to leave you something,

Something better than words or sounds;

Look for me in the people I've known

Or loved.

And if you cannot give me away,

At least let me live in your eyes

And not in your mind.

You can love me most

By letting hands touch hands,

By letting bodies touch bodies,

And by letting go of children

That need to be free.

Love doesn't die; people do.

So that when all that's left of is love,

Give me away.

I'll see you at home in the earth

MERRIT  MALLOY

In Joe's Honor Please consider

Loving people better, see people more clearly, embracing courage,

dancing wildly and noticing the light