In 2009, it is the first birthday of Brad Renfro without him in the world to wish him well.

            He was a beautiful young man.   My first teen idol crush.   Over the years I have enjoyed watching him mature into a wonderfully damaged soul.   He was quiet, sullen and showing an intellenge in those darks eyes that always allured and kept me hypnotised to his every move.   In almost all his films there was a gay element to the story line.   He was not perfect and that made him all the more likable. He will be missed.  

            He has joined an exclusive club. Like the "27 Club," the 27 year old musician club of Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison.   Brad Renfro has joined the teen idol club dead before their time club.   Like other of my favorites like Jonathon Brandis and River Pheonix, he burned his candle out by a hidden rough life.  

            Teen idols are so much like candy in the media machines.   We attach ourselves to these people who caress the screen and are there to be watched, loved, hated and then to be walked away from.   So many teen idols grow up and no longer have that fire to to keep them going.   Their fire is made of people wanting them, needing them and when their fans disappear, their fire burns out and so do they.   In my teenage years, closetes and scared, it was so wonderful   to have so many good looking young men have raised my heart and and then to have my heart broken in silence to have to have them disappear.   For more of the teen idols out there I can only hope they do grow up and have a happy life.   Even if I never hear about them again, at least they are alive and well.

            Renfro was found dead on January 15, 2008 in his Los Angeles apartment.   There was a brief announcement on the local news at my home the night of Renfro's death as a "former teen idol" and I missed it. Renfro's death was buried figuratively in the news as a week later Heath Ledger died. On February 8, 2008, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office ruled that Renfro's death was accidental, attributing it to acute heroin/morphine intoxication.

            His body was returned to East Tennessee, where he was buried on January 22, 2008 north of Knoxville, at Red House Cemetery in the small community of Blaine.

            Less than two weeks later, his grandmother Joanne - who had raised him and accompanied him regularly during his early acting career - died at her home at the age of 76.   Local officials stated that she died of natural causes.