Joseph T. "Gootch" Bryson, 81, founder of Mummers brigade.

GOOTCH BRYSON would walk among the busy sewers in the basement of his home in South Philadelphia where hundreds of Mummers' costumes were being manufactured, his eagle eye regarding every stitch.

"Trim as you go!" he would bark. "No strings!"

Children, grandchildren and other relatives would be hard at work at sewing machines, colorful costumes hanging on pipe racks like restless ghosts of New Year's parades past.

The costumes were for the Bryson New Year's Brigade, founded by Gootch and his wife in 1977, and the Pirates New Year's Brigade - a total of more than 600 costumes.

And Gootch had this thing about strings. He hated the very idea that a costume would be trailing a string as it made its way in the annual New Year's Mummers Parade.

Stamping out strings was consistent with Gootch's perfectionist personality. He was a man who believed that if you're going to do something, do it right, or don't bother.

Joseph T. "Gootch" Bryson, also known as "Pop," a fixture in the South Philadelphia neighborhoods where Mummers are the very reason for being, an Army veteran and the patriarch of a family that includes 54 members of three generations, died Saturday. He was 81.

Pop made his last New Year's parade in January with a lot of help from friends and family. He rode a motorized scooter over some of the route.

He was taken out of the Veterans Affairs hospital for the occasion. Since the Bryson Brigade is a Wench group, with men dressed as women, he usually carried a colorful umbrella as he pranced along the route. His brother Edward got the umbrella this time.

The scene in the basement of the Bryson home on Winton Street near Snyder Avenue was one of controlled chaos through most of every year. Gootch and his late wife, Lucille, kept it organized. Six sewing machines would be humming as Mummer music and polkas blared from speakers.

Joseph Bryson and Lucille Santora met at age 11. Family legend has it that Joseph, even at that tender age, told friends that he intended to marry Lucille. He did, in 1951. Lucille died in 2003.

Pop suffered for half of his life from rheumatoid arthritis, but, despite almost constant discomfort, he never complained, his family said.

"He was by far the toughest person I've ever known," said his nephew Joseph Gorman, Daily News page makeup supervisor.

Joseph was born in South Philadelphia, one of the seven children of Emma and Thomas Bryson. He attended Bok Technical High School.

He and his father and brother Thomas played football for the Cherokees in a semipro league: Joseph at running back, Thomas at fullback and their father at linebacker.

When he entered the Army during the Korean War, he played football on an Army team in Germany. He married Lucille while on leave.

After the Army, Joseph drove trucks for Eastern Industries, a construction-materials company. He worked until he was disabled in 1971.

Joseph was also an outstanding baseball player in his youth. He and his brothers were active with the Edward O'Malley Athletic Association in South Philadelphia, where he was a well-regarded football and baseball coach.

Gootch was well-known in his South Philly neighborhood.

"He was a pillar of the community," family members said. "You couldn't go anywhere without people calling out, 'Hey, Pop, Yo, Pop!' He was everybody's hero, not just family members, but people in the neighborhood. If you ever needed anything, he was right there."

Despite the fact that Joseph had seven children, 18 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren, if they were old enough to know what a birthday or Christmas card looked like, they were sure to get one from Pop.

"He never let us down," his children said. "You always knew you were remembered."

In addition to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, he is survived by four sons, Joseph T., Michael, Edward and Paul Bryson; two daughters, Lucille Myers and Laureen Depre; and a sister, Arlene Kavalauskas. He was predeceased by another daughter, Catherine M. Gindville-Kobielnik.

Services: A "New Orleans-style" funeral procession, complete with brass band, will begin at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Edward O'Malley Club, 138 Moore St., and proceed to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, where a Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Friends may call at 5 this evening at the O'Malley Club and at 8 a.m. tomorrow. Burial will be in Ss. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Marple.