Hagerstown's resident Santa was never in doubt about what Christmas means

It was a miracle on Virginia Avenue that inspired Floyd "Bud" Kline to take his own turn as Kris Kringle, a role that he continued for the rest of his life.

"We owned a Phillips 66 gas station out on Virginia Avenue," Kline's daughter Debby Kendrick recalled. "He started out selling Christmas trees every year."

One year he dressed up as Santa. And a family with a non-communicative little one stopped by.

"He didn't talk," Kendrick said, "but he looked at Daddy and said 'ho-ho.'"

And that was that. Bud Kline became possessed by the spirit of St. Nick.

Over the next 56 years, he made appearances all over Washington County and in other communities in the region, sharing the spirit of St. Nicholas with children — and not a few adults — wherever he went.

He grew the beard, he invested in the red wardrobe. Santa became his alter ego.

Parents who had whispered their Christmas wishes to him as children brought their own offspring to perch on his knee and tell him their own secrets.

Kendrick saw them every year at the family business, Kline's Auto Body.

"At the body shop we've had, every year, generations of families come," she said. "I mean, you could get five generations, every year they'd show up to get pictures."

Despite mounting health issues, Kline had already been making appearances this year. "He was out at Wilson Store (near Clear Spring) already once this year," said family friend Chris Brezler, and at the body shop on Margaret Drive.

"He was Santa-ing this year," Brezler said, until he couldn't.

Kline passed away Saturday at Meritus Medical Center near Hagerstown. He was 86. But his Santa persona was in its 57th year.

"That was his whole life for 57 years," Brezler said.

Here comes Santa Claus

After that fateful encounter with a special little boy, Kline's career as the jolly old elf began to snowball. He started making appearances at Wilson's and other businesses, at hospitals and day care centers, fire company events and others. He became the official Santa Claus for Long Meadow Shopping Center.

"If you live in Hagerstown, you couldn't help it but run into Bud," said broadcaster Lou Scally. "I used to be the guy doing the broadcast every Friday after Thanksgiving to welcome him to Long Meadow Shopping Center.

"He reminded me of the Coca-Cola Santa of the 1930s … he just, he just owned that image."

Debra Hunt was in charge of marketing at Long Meadow, and worked with Kline from the mid-1980s through the last Santa event in 2011.

"He would do Santa's arrival; he would come in a fire truck … Longmeadow Fire Department loved to bring him in on the fire truck … and I'd be in center court with Lou Scally awaiting Santa's arrival the day after Thanksgiving. We had magic shows, we had girls coming and caroling, and it was just a wonderful time.

"And this is really hard for me," she said, tears in her eyes.

Over the years, Kline pulled friends and family into his North Pole entourage.

"We always had Rudolph and Frosty; everybody in the family pretty much has worn those outfits," Kendrick said. When he was at Long Meadow, we all took pictures and were his little elves."

In later years, Kline's wife Doris took on Mrs. Santa's role, she added.

Kendrick's kids got into the act, too. One of her sons was about 12 when he dressed as Rudolph during one of Kline's visits to the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore.

"And there was a little red-haired boy that was laying in the bed in a body cast, and he just attached himself to Rudolph," she recalled. "And my son's never forgot that, and he's 38 today."

Brezler was 10 years old when he moved to Florida Avenue in Hagerstown's West End, becoming the Kline family's neighbor.

"I moved in right up the street from Santa Claus," he said. "So I grew up watching him do Santa Claus for decades … with the Rudolph costumes, the Frosty costumes; we built sleighs overtop an old dune buggy at one time."

And while a sleigh drawn by eight tiny reindeer (well, nine if you count Rudolph) might be Santa's preferred mode of transportation, Kline would happily ride in a fire truck or hop on a helicopter to appear at the Howard County Fairgrounds.

But Kline's Santa had a special vehicle of his own.

"He used to have a Cadillac Eldorado convertible that was like a half a block long," Brezler said. "It was bright red and in the middle of winter, goin' to Santa gigs, you'd see driving this Cadillac Eldorado. And of course, it was a bright red and he'd drive it with with the top down.

"And his personal license plate even said 'I AM SANTA.'"

His dizzying calendar of Christmas appearances included showing up at homes — at parents' behest — on Christmas Eve to deliver toys and sometimes to cheer adults.

Brezler remembers Kline arriving at his grandmother's home on a Christmas Eve shortly after her husband died.

"We all gathered at my grandmother's house; we did this every year," Brezler said. "At 11:30 the doorbell rings … We open the door and here comes Santa Claus with the bunch.

"That is the magic he had. With a 2-week-old child or a 90-year-old great-grandmother, he had that same magic."

Santa Claus knows we're all God's children; that makes everything right

"He was Santa 24/7, 365," Brezler said.

Brezler accompanied Kline and his family to Ocean City, Md., for a vacation. "We're sitting outside the 5 & 10 store on the Boardwalk and a kid comes out just screaming like crazy; I guess didn't get the toy he wanted or whatever the parents didn't do."

Kline motioned the boy over. "The kid instantly, just peace and quiet," Brezler said.

Kline said "'You know I had to come all the way from the North Pole just for you,'" Brezler remembered. "This kid, at that moment, he knew Santa was real."

"He couldn't go out to eat" without being Santa, Kendrick said. "He'd see a little boy there not eating, all he'd do was just kind of shake his finger at them and they'd start eating," she said. "They knew that he was Santa, in or out of the suit … you'd go anywhere with him and kids, they knew he was Santa."

Kendrick was 6 years old when her dad first donned the red suit. "He's the only Santa I ever knew," she said. "I did go through a spell with my daughter where she was jealous of other children being on his lap."

And there were so, so many children.

"Not only was he Santa Claus for everybody in this town, he really enjoyed it," Scally said. "He was very compassionate. He was very good with the children.

"I've seen a lot of bad Santas over the years. This man was the embodiment of what the true spirit of Christmas is."

That was one reason he declined to appear at malls, Kendrick and Brezler said, which he thought was too commercialized and where children must bustle quickly through the line, get their pictures and move on.

"He said, 'Some kids take longer than others, and I'm not going to change how I do things,'" Brezler said.

Peace on Earth will come to all, if we just follow the light

Kline was not at all confused about what Christmas meant.

"He was a kind, gentle soul," Hunt said. "He loved children. He loved life. He loved the Lord. I think he really knew the true meaning of Christmas. I think you could feel it every time you were in his presence.

"I'd say he was like Christmas every day of the year."

"He would always say that Jesus is the reason for the season," Kendrick said, "and he always said if you take Christ out of Christmas, you didn't have anything.

"He loved us. He loved his wife. He loved my mom, loved us kids. He lived his life for what he did and his family."

He was troubled, she said, that he might not get to finish the job this year.

"I honestly think because he knew he couldn't finish it, it just broke his heart. He was he was really adamant about finishing this year. But he did his best."

He did not leave the responsibility unattended, however. He passed the bag onto Brezler, who by day is a supervisor in the water distribution department for the city of Hagerstown.

"Over the past few years as Bud's health has declined and stuff like that, he was always like, 'You know, no one's gonna do this.' And I said, 'Well, you know what,' I said, 'I'll do it.'"

Those are big boots to fill, and Brezler's aware of that. But he dyed his beard white and started filling in for Kline. On Thursday at the hospital, Kline was giving Brezler instructions.

"The nurses are getting ready to take him down for more testing and he's telling me, 'Hey, at Wilson's Store you have to do this and at Fountainhead Country Club you got to do this.' He was so worried that the kids wouldn't have Santa somewhere. As late as Thursday evening, he was more worried about those kids than anything else.

"I guess he was giving me last-minute flight instructions."

You can help Bud finish the job

Kendrick said arrangements were being made to have a Toys for Tots donation box at Rest Haven Funeral Home, 1601 Pennsylvania Ave., Hagerstown, where the family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. She said toys will be accepted in Kline's memory.

The funeral is scheduled at 11 a.m. Thursday at Grace United Methodist Church, 712 W. Church St., Hagerstown with Pastor Dionne Hall officiating, according to his obituary.

More: Bud Kline celebrates 50 years of being Santa Claus

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Friends, family remember Bud Kline, Hagerstown's resident Santa