Burt Kelly Waycaster of Johnson City, Tennessee, passed away at the age of 63 years old on Friday, June 27th, 2025. Burt was born on September 12th, 1961 to Bill and Lotte Waycaster in Frankfurt, Germany. He was his parents only son and brother to sisters, Evelyn, Dina, and Vickie. Throughout his life, he became an uncle, brother-in-law, husband, father, and friend to many.

Burt’s military family settled in Jonesboro when he was 8 years old, and he graduated high school in 1979 as a David Crockett Pioneer. He spent his professional career working at Leon Fernback, American Water Heaters, and finished his career as a supervisor at LPI. If you knew Burt, you know that he worked so that he could play, and softball was his game of choice. In his prime, you would have found him juggling county and city ball schedules each night of the week. He also loved to work on his tan, kept his hair cut sharp, and loved to look good.

August 12th, 1983, Burt married Sheila Gillen (18 years). The day he married her, he also became the dad to three-year-old daughter, Samantha Gillen (Buchanan). They had two more daughters together, Heather Waycaster and Kellie Waycaster (Sluss). He passed on his love of softball to each of his girls. Through his daughters, he became a grandfather to 7 children; Teagan (21) and Rylee Waycaster (17), Stella (18) and Avery Gillen-Rexroad (18), Noah Buchanan (12) Kenny (9) and Emma Sluss (4). In addition to his daughters and grandchildren he is survived by his sisters Vickey Britt, Dina Shaw, all of his nieces and nephews, who have many fond memories of their Uncle Burt. Burt was preceded in death by his mother, father, and sister, Evelyn Clark.

Now let’s cut to the chase. We all know that Burt wasn’t the best decision maker. He lived life on the edge and always loved a thrill. What you may or may not know about Burt is that he was a sensitive and honest person. He never made excuses or blamed others for the mistakes he made, and he said he was sorry for the things he carried as a burden. He made his wrong doings right, and he was an honest man and never said anything bad about anyone, unless you owed him money. Then he had plenty of bad things to say. He was his daughters’ and grand children’s biggest fan. He was very proud of his girls and made it a point to tell them how great they were often. He checked in on each of us, wanted to hear from us, and asked how we were doing, wanting to know every detail about how each of his grandchildren were and what was going on in their lives. When something was wrong he always called us to make sure we were okay because he worried about us and loved his family the way every father and grandfather should.

Burt spent his final days enjoying car rides with Teagan and watching Rylee build her lego sets. He read books by Dr. Seuss, like “Fox in Socks” to Emma, and convinced Kenny to get him more bags of chips. He asked for and knew every detail of Avery and Stella’s upcoming college plans and he knew all of Noah’s activities and interests. He saw the best in each of us and was quick to remind us to have grace for others when we were frustrated. He loved his family and was proud of us.

Dad, we love you and hope that you can feel and know how important you were to each of us, this world, and all of your family and friends. Your smile, inappropriate comments, and laughter will be missed.    

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