YONKERS, Ga. — Editor's Note: The video in this story is from a 2019 interview with Joseph and Marie Tripp, and the family who picked up the tradition of the light display.
The namesake of one of Georgia’s largest residential Christmas light displays has died.
According to a post on the Tripp Family Christmas Lights Facebook page, Joe Tripp Jr. died Sunday morning at the age of 75 due to complications from his battle with COVID-19.
Tripp was a familiar face to families in Central Georgia as he donned a Santa suit and greeted kids at his light display for more than three decades.
The post says, “He is a very loved man and we will miss him forever and always. Heaven will be the brightest it has ever been with Joe Tripp there stringing up Christmas lights and showing his trademark smile.”
Joe and his wife, Marie, married on Christmas Eve in 1974 and had five children. What started as a modest light display grew year after year.
In 1995, one of their sons, Joey, was diagnosed with cancer.
Marie told 13WMAZ back in 2018 that all he wanted to do was see the lights, and so from that point forward the family got to work creating a winter wonderland until 2015 when they called it quits due to health problems.
Funeral arrangements are still being sorted out and will be announced soon.
13WMAZ would like to extend its condolences to the Tripp family, their friends, and anyone who knew and loved Joe.
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