Farewell, Uncle Roy

I'm sad to let you know my favorite uncle died yesterday.  Roy was 79.  He had suffered a long time from emphysema. 

He was a Navy veteran, and served during the war on a ship out in the Pacific.  He had some cool jobs during his life - he drove a cab, delivered for the old Donaldson bakery, worked for Premium Foil, and for Campbell's Soup.  When he worked for Premium Foil here in Louisville, I thought it was cool because he would always give us boxes of aluminum pie plates and tv dinner plates. (They made the plates for Banquet).  They transferred him to their plant in Modesto, California so he and my aunt Helen moved out there in the late 60's.  When that plant closed, he went to work for Campbell Soup.  He worked in the Prego spaghetti sauce division until he retired in 1991. 

While they lived in California, Roy and Helen would travel on the weekends with their cool Airstream trailer.  They loved going to Yosemite and to Lake Tahoe.  They were also into square dancing, and travelled around the state with their square dance club.  Roy loved playing cribbage, a game he learned in the Navy.  They would play cribbage every night after supper. I'm almost positive they played a few games this weekend.  

When Roy retired from Campbells, they moved back to Louisville.  Once again, it was nice to have family to be with.  After battling pneumonia twice, Roy was diagnosed with emphysema, not a real shocker since he had been a smoker all of his adult life.  His health was starting to deteriorate, and after Grandma died (his wife's mother) they decided to move back to California to be close to their daughter and her family. 

As you can see, Uncle Roy had an active life.  After making countless trips across the country over the years, he saw more of the United States than all of us put together.  He was full of fun, and he and I had some great times before they moved back to California.  One adventure that I'll always remember was our trip down to the 'hood in Portland.  One summer, Roy asked me to bring Dad's little Ranger truck over to haul a load of scrap aluminum to the recycling center. So we loaded up the little truck and headed down to Portland.  For those not familiar with Loiusville, the Portland area is one of the toughest, baddest parts of town.  I was leary of going there in the broad daylight.  But we went and sold his scrap.  He was thrilled to death over getting $42 for it.

Roy and Helen were also faithful watchers of "The Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy."  I'm hoping that yesterday morning as Uncle Roy was waiting at the pearly gates, St. Peter told him that Ken Jennings lost on Jeopardy.