Walter Thomas Colquitt III, D.D.S.

Hey! On December 29, 2024, the world lost renegade rock ‘n’ roll dentist, Walter Thomas Colquitt III. After an extended illness, Tom died peacefully at home surrounded by his loving wife and daughters. A master of the written word, Tom had intended to write his own obituary, but his heart did not allow him the time. “Make it funny,” he said, “and I want it to begin with ”Hey.” We will do our best to honor his wishes here, but he was the one who was blessed with the gift of comedic expression.

Tom had an offbeat humor and an unconventional attitude toward life that was often reflected in his work, his social life, and in his quasi-professional musical pursuits. He found humor in everything, injecting comedy and silliness into his daily life. He played pranks on his dental patients, told dirty jokes at inappropriate times, and relished the pleasure of making people laugh. A perfect example of his endless sense of humor came shortly after returning home from a recent hospital stay. Equipped with a new pump delivering lifesaving heart medication, he greeted his daughter by dramatically opening his jacket to reveal the pouch and quipping, “Papa’s got a brand new bag!” 

Tom was born on May 25, 1945, to Eleanor Johnson Colquitt and Dr. Walter Thomas Colquitt, Jr. He was introduced to music at a young age by his mother, a gifted pianist and arts advocate, and formed his first band at age 13. Upon hearing the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There,” his life was forever changed: rock ‘n’ roll was in his heart to stay. 

Beginning with the piano, Tom learned to play numerous instruments, including guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, and of course, the cow bell. After graduating from Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, he attended Washington and Lee University. There, he spent his time playing in band gigs at parties rather than attending class and, after earning a “negative grade point average” his freshman year, he returned to Shreveport to attend Centenary College of Louisiana. While at Centenary, Tom majored in English, joined Kappa Alpha Order, and formed his first official garage band, Tom and the Cats. They released their first single, “The Wine Song” in 1965, followed by a cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” in 1966. The song was a hit and the band was offered a contract to perform in Las Vegas. 

However, Tom was called to follow in his father’s footsteps and entered Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas, Texas. While a student at Baylor, Tom was set up on a blind date with a pretty coed at SMU. Waiting with the other suitors for their dates to appear, he saw Virginia Claire Newell descend the stairs of the Kappa Kappa Gamma house and announced, “that’s the girl I’m going to marry.” After several requests, he and Ginger were married in her hometown of Memphis, TN, in July of 1968. They made their home in Dallas until he graduated in 1970, after which they moved to Shreveport, where Tom joined his father’s dental practice. Their first daughter, Catherine Lee, was born in 1971, followed by Claire Newell in 1973.

While practicing dentistry in Shreveport, Tom continued to pursue his passion for music, comedy, and all-around silliness. He and John David Crow formed the music duo Broken Bow & Idabell, recording This Album is Different in Tom’s garage-turned-recording studio. Tom, John David, and fellow conspirator in humor, Tom Allen, hosted a recurring radio comedy hour, called the Tom, Tom, and John Show. More garage bands followed, most notably, The Hubcaps. The band performed at local weddings, debutante parties, and other events in various incarnations that included Shreveport musicians Clyde Hargrove, John Howe, Michael Long, Ron Whitaker, and Jim “Stuck Reed” Mitchell. The Hubcaps were known for their outlandish shenanigans, such as wearing matching vintage glitter-trimmed powder blue tuxedos and tossing frozen Swanson TV dinners into the crowd. Once, while continuing to play their instruments on stage, they grilled burgers and mixed drinks for those fortunate enough to be in attendance. These most notorious performances transpired at the Red River Revel arts festival and often included an entourage of backup singers and guest musicians who were escorted to the stage in golf carts. Guest artists included the likes of professional golfer Payne Stewart and a Kenny Loggins look-alike, Randy Mulkey.

Tom practiced dentistry alongside his father for more than 25 years and continued at the helm until his “retirement” in 2022. He was driven toward excellence in dentistry, working endless hours in his lab studying the plaster casts of his patients’ mouths and carefully sculpting and casting crowns by his own hand. Tom belonged to numerous professional associations, serving in the Northwest Louisiana Dental Association, the Ark-La-Tex Dental Congress, the Southwest Academy of Restorative Dentistry, the American Academy of Restorative Dentistry, in which he served a term as its President, and the International Academy of Gnathology American Section. He was a former Baylor College of Dentistry Trustee, a Fellow in the American College of Dentists, and Past-President of the Baylor Century Club.

Despite closing his dental practice in 2022, Tom never truly retired. His unwavering passion for his patients' health and well-being extended beyond dentistry into sleep medicine. He was an adjunct professor in the Sleep Fellowship Program at LSUHSC medical school in Shreveport, working tirelessly to bring attention to Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome to all fields of medicine. He was a trailblazer tantamount to a mad scientist with an immense passion to improve the health of anyone who would listen. Friends, family, patients, and even strangers received countless lectures on proper breathing techniques. He couldn’t help it. He did it out of love. Shoot, he even wrote a song about it. He penned “Back in the UARS,” for his final musical performances with the Pulmonauts, a group of dental sleep clinicians-cum- musicians who shared the mission to spread awareness of Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome. He performed with them several times before he had to withdraw due to his declining health. He spent his last few months collaborating with fellow musicians Jim Mitchell and Jay Frank in his home studio, calling themselves Ole Farzzz and da’ Boy. They had planned to entertain residents at local retirement communities and had t-shirts printed to toss into the audience. Sadly, they never got the chance to perform.

Tom was preceded in death by his father, Walter Thomas Colquitt Jr.; his mother, Eleanor Johnson Colquitt; sisters, Catherine “Kit” Blue and Sarah Elizabeth Stang and his beloved dogs, Lady, Cookie, Max, Ben, and Abby. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Ginger Newell Colquitt; daughters, Catherine Lee Schaffler and her husband, Brian of Memphis, Tennessee and Claire Colquitt Moss and her husband, Billy of Oxford, Mississippi; grandchildren, Gus and Lanie Schaffler and Henry and Lucy Moss; brother in-law, Ned Newell; sisters in-law, Linda Browndyke and Julie Newell, an array of nieces, nephews, cousins; and his beloved dog, Bella. Tom never got over the loss of his best friend, Clyde Hargrove, who left this world too soon and no doubt a little less funny. Had he not, his dedicated partner in unbridled mischief would have hidden Tom’s underwear in the freezer just one last time. 

The family would like to share a few quotes and anecdotes from Tom’s close friends:

Close friend Mark Dickson said, “Tom was never afraid to say what was on his mind or in his heart. He didn’t sugarcoat it: he just said it straight out, without fear that people would be offended by how direct he was. We would be a better world if we were more like Tom, totally straightforward with one another, calling things like they are.”

After his last visit on the day before Tom’s passing, Hubcap keyboardist Jim “Stuck Reed” Mitchell remarked in jest, “When he wakes up, be sure to tell him he’s the worst singer I’ve ever heard.”

Author and illustrator, Bill Joyce on the eve of Tom’s passing: The world is sad. He was a true buccaneer of life. I was always glad to see him. Who gets excited about seeing their dentist?

Former Hubcaps bandmate Michael Long said, “Tom was first my bandmate, then became my dentist and was my friend. He had an amazing musical ear and was very precise when learning songs. Hubcap practice nights were legendary due to the humor and other shenanigans that occurred. Our live shows were sometimes equally as crazy. Clyde jumping on the Oyster House bar and having the ceiling fan whack his head and almost knocking him to the floor is but one example. Tom was a great dentist who took excellent care of me and his other patients. His humor, intellect and wisdom were greatly appreciated and will be missed by all who knew him.”

When asked what was special about his friendship with Tom, fellow musician and friend, Jay Frank stated, “He let me be me, he let me be me.”

Tom’s extraordinary life will be honored at a celebration in the spring of 2025. His ashes will be interred during a private ceremony at a family plot in the Historic Natchez City Cemetery, perched on the bluffs above the Mississippi River.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials may be made to the Foundation for Airway Health, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, or the Stax Music Academy.