“Bugled to Jesus” (to die)

“Bugled to Jesus” is another term for “to die” or “to go to heaven.” The term was first used by writer Larry L. King (Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), but has been popularized by writer Kinky Friedman in several of his books.
 
   
Google Books
Larry L. King:
A Writer’s Life in Letters, Or, Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye
edited by Richard A. Holland
Forth Worth, TX: TCU Press
1999
Pg. 362:
May 1, 1995
Pg. 363:
I swan, as Mama said, who’d of thought back yonder in ‘61 that The Gay Place would still be celebrated in 19-and-95 and already has lasted 17 years past Billie Lee’s being bugled to Jesus?
   
Google Books
The Mile High Club
by Kinky Friedman
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster
2000
Pg. 204:
The cat watched the operation from the toilet lid where quite recently a man had been bugled to Jesus, or, in light of the latest evidence, to Moses.
 
Google Books
The Prisoner of Vandam Street
by Kinky Friedman
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster
2004
Pg. 44:
I remember back in Texas people often used to ask my old friend Slim, who was bugled to Jesus long before the term “African-American” was invented, why his cats always got into their garbage cans.
   
Google Books
‘Scuse Me While I Whip This Out:
Reflections on Country Singers, Presidents, and Other Troublemakers
by Kinky Friedman
New York: HarperCollins
2004
Pg. 46:
Hank and Townes also had been bugled to Jesus in the cosmic window of the New Year.
 
Google Books
Texas Hold ‘Em:
How I Was Born in a Manger, Died in the Saddle, and Came Back as a Horny Toad
by Kinky Friedman
New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin
2005
Pg. 209 (Start Talkin’: A Guide to Kinkybonics):
Bugled to Jesus: To die. (On loan from Larry L. King.) See also Step on a rainbow.