Brian Franklin Hillary Crittenden passed away on June 10, 2022. He was 52 years old.
Brian liked to be known as “Spirit,” a name he chose due to his deep appreciation for Native American culture and its spirituality.
A creative, innovative songwriter, lyricist and guitarist, he wrote many popular and original pieces over the last 30 years, which he played in various Orlando venues. Brian was never shy to make a new friend; he was kind-hearted and a staunch defender of the underdog. He loved his daughter, Devan, and his son, Darren, very much.
An Orlando native, he was born in Orange Memorial Hospital (now Orlando Regional Medical Center) on April 16, 1970. His aunt Alma Crittenden, a volunteer Pink Lady at the time, wheeled him down into the lobby in the obligatory wheelchair with his mother, Helen, as Brian for the first time ventured into the world.
Brian attended Chickasaw Elementary, Liberty Junior High and Colonial High School. He excelled at football for a time and was wildly popular with the ladies.
A gator tail connoisseur from an early age, growing up Brian enjoyed boating and barbequing at the family’s lake house on Lake Conway and many fun summers in the log cabin in the Tennessee Smokey Mountains. In later years, when family vacations took a more European bent, his zest for life was best illustrated when he was more intrigued by the flight attendants than the unique experience of flying Concorde from Paris to New York.
Brian and his older brother, Earl, were held joint co-conspirators in the biggest family scandal of their childhoods: without their parents’ knowledge, they sold parking spots in the yard to their parents’ invited guests to the PGA Florida Citrus Open golf tournament at Rio Pinar Country Club. (They lived on the 11th hole.) Highly displeased, their father, Duke, donated all the boys’ profits to the church.
Later years proved to be a bit turbulent as he grappled with substance and mental health issues. Brian no doubt would want anyone reading this now to seek all help available to avoid a senseless and unintended early death and putting their loved ones in pain.
Brian is survived by his two adult children, Devan Crittenden and Darren Crittenden; mother Helen Crittenden; and brother Earl Crittenden Jr. His father, Earl “Duke” Crittenden, passed away in 2009.