When Martin Travelstead smiled, his whole face lit up.

“He was the best all around. He was the best husband. He was the best father to us children. There’s no words that can describe him, I don’t think,” son Scott Travelstead said last week.

On April 5, Travelstead, 81, passed away due to complications from COVID-19, the coronavirus.

His daughter, Robin Travelstead Merritt, said her father was very wise and that people often came to him for perspective.

He had the Travelstead family smile, “a big, toothy smile,” Robin said.

That smile was even apparent as he passed.

Martin had been admitted to Johnson Memorial Hospital the morning of April 4. He had been sick for four or five days before he died on April 5.

Due to pandemic restrictions on hospital visitors, Martin’s wife, Shirley, and his two children could not be in person at his bedside. But thanks to an intensive care unit nurse, they were able to Facetime him through an iPad that was brought into his hospital room.

An ongoing joke between Shirley and Martin was that whenever Martin arrived in Heaven, he would have a full head of hair again, because he was “as bald as a cucumber,” Scott said.

After the ventilator had been turned down and the sedation began to fade a bit to allow him to hear his family, Shirley joked with Martin one last time.

“She said, ‘Dad you’re going to have your full head of hair really soon.’ When she said to him, you could just see a little grin peeking on his face,” Scott said.

“It was probably 15 minutes later, he just kind of closed his eyes, took his last breath, and that was it.”

‘You never know’

Shirley was tested for COVID-19 on March 31. The highest her temperature ever rose was to 99.9. “It only lasted about three or four days, then, her symptoms completely went away. The cough she had went away, so now she’s been symptom-free and out of the woods now,” Scott said.

Robin said her mother has some residual symptoms still, but all of the symptoms she experienced while she was sick were mild, like a sore throat. “They weren’t really bad, like the pneumonia and the filling up of the lungs so you couldn’t breathe and that type of thing,” she said.

Martin was not tested until he was admitted into the hospital, but he had progressively become more ill from March 31 on, Robin said.

Shirley received her positive test results for the virus on April 4. At that point, she let the doctors know her husband was sick and the decision was made to call an ambulance.

Scott was at his parents’ home when the ambulance came. Martin walked himself to the ambulance.

“I said, ‘I love you, Pop.’ He looked up at me and said, ‘I love you too, Son.’ He gave me a thumbs up,” Scott said.

“Little did we know, 20 hours later, he wouldn’t be here.”

Both Scott and Robin said they are not sure where Martin or Shirley may have contracted the virus or who may have given it to whom.

“My parents stayed at their house. There’s only two places that we can even think about them going. One was to pick up a car down in Seymour and then to a grocery store. It could have been somebody who had a cough, handed them the keys. It could have been somebody stacking the groceries up. It could have been anything. You never know,” Robin said.

“We have agreed to not discuss that part, because it’s irrelevant at this point,” Scott added.

Faithful servant

Shirley and Martin marked their 60th wedding anniversary in December. Unity Baptist Church Pastor Lee Snider said the couple was “inseparable.”

“If you’ve seen one of them, the other one would be there,” he said.

“Probably one of the best relationships I’ve ever witnessed. Most people would give a fortune to have what they have.”

Travelstead served as a deacon for more than 50 years and was the senior deacon at Unity Baptist. “He’s probably one of the most faithful men I have ever worked with during your time as a pastor,” Snider said.

Martin and Shirley both served roles at Unity Baptist. Shirley is the treasurer and head of the trustees, Snider said. The couple helped to serve food to around 40 kids and 20 adults each Wednesday night for the church’s kids ministry.

“He and Shirley were always helping. His ministry went from the very young children — he taught Sunday school — to the adults. If there was work to be done out there, it was Martin,” Snider said.

“He and Shirley did all of the mowing, if you’ve ever been out there (at the church), it’s a lot of mowing.”

The Travelstead family moved to Brown County around 1973, according to newspaper archives. Martin was retired from AT&T. He had served in the United States Army from June 1957 to June 1960 as a rank sergeant and as a field radio repairman and mechanic.

Martin had been on the diving team with the Army. He loved swimming and diving with his great-grandchildren and body-surfing with his son. “Even at the age of 78 years old, my dad still loved to body surf with me. We would get in the ocean and dad and I would ride waves for hours,” Scott said.

In December 2007, Martin joined the Brown County Honor Guard detail, serving for 11 years. He was commander for three and a half years.

“He set a very good example on how people should live their lives as a human being. He loved the veterans and he’s proud of his service,” said Dave Pate. He knew Martin not only from veterans events, but from church as well, and he used to work with Martin’s son, Scott.

The family had a small, private service, but plans to have a celebration of life later this summer or fall once restrictions on social gatherings are lifted. The Brown County Honor Guard will serve at that celebration, Pate said.

“Martin just loved people. … The veterans loved Martin and he loved the veterans,” Pate said.

He first learned that Martin and Shirley were both sick through a prayer chain at church. “Then the next thing you know is, the call comes in that to me that they were going to pull the breathing tube out, and he passed away shortly after they took the breathing tube out,” he said.

“It happened so quickly. It’s kind of like, ‘Wow. Is this real?’ But you know it is.”

‘Encourager in Chief’

Martin also was involved with Brown County Schools. He served on the school board for more than 12 years, starting in 1976. Six months after he was chosen to fill a vacancy on the board, he became its president.

He was on the school board when now-Superintendent Laura Hammack was hired as a special education teacher at the former Nashville Elementary School.

“Martin was one of my favorite people on the planet. I loved him very much,” Hammack said last week.

“Whenever I would see him, Martin would always tell me that he was very proud of that decision (to hire Hammack). It makes me teary just to type those words.”

Through his time as a board member and beyond, Martin was “an incredible ambassador for Brown County Schools.”

“Martin was a light,” she said.

“Martin was an ‘Encourager in Chief.’ He was relentless in offering optimism and support for programs that lifted up the youth of our community. I never saw him without a smile. His eyes literally twinkled when you spoke to him.”

The last time that Hammack saw him was at Christmas when he helped to deliver gifts to preschool students in the county as part of Unity Baptist Church’s Shoebox Ministry.

“There is absolutely no irony that Martin’s last interaction with the school was one of service in an incredible act of love for the children of Brown County,” she said.

Beth Mulry served on the school board with Travelstead. “He was an experienced member when I came on the board. He always made time for me if I had questions, always respectful,” she said.

Mulry said she was shocked to learn his death was a result of the coronavirus, and that this death has made the pandemic less abstract for her.

“We see it on the news, we read about it, but to actually know somebody that’s passed and know the people involved in it just really made it more real,” she said.