While many are playing pranks and enjoying a day of Fools – I take time to pause to remember my husband’s father, Ken Green. Today would’ve been my father-in-laws 92nd birthday. Kendrick LaVere Green was a kind and gentle man. He loved to golf and fish. He loved to watch Nascar and Golf on TV also. After a courageous battle with prostrate cancer he lost his battle on July 22nd , 1998. Grandpa also loved to work in the yard, as his grown children were sorting through the house after the memorial service, I stepped outside to weed his flowerbed. The family will remember this flower bed because it is the one that lined the front walkway of their house on Cherry Blossom Lane, Grandpa build that flower bed as he built the rock wall that served as the foundation for the walkway. He also grew the best cantaloupe I have ever tasted. I find it hard to believe so much time has passed.
I realized a few months after grandpa Green left us that a very integral part of our family status was gone. Each family took the time to call and visit with grandpa, updating him with what was new in each of our lives. We had moved to TX by this time I really enjoyed our telephone chats because I would learn what the other families were up to. We no longer had that center command post, and we have not found a way to recreate it to this day, even with email, facebook and more telephone options than one could imagine.
**A short history of Ken’s life as written by Norma, his bride of over 50 years (they didn’t quite make it to 51 before we lost Norma).
Kendrick LaVere Green, born April 1, 1921, Butlerville, Utah. Childhood was spent in Butler grade school, Brighton, Utah working with riding horses and boat renting places. Parents Elva Loraine Staker Green and George Almon Green. He has two sisters (Carole and Iris). Baptized L.D.S. Went to Jordan High School. Entered Mechanic Learners School to join the Navy in 1941. Schooled at Logan University. (I interviewed him for schooling at Hill Field). He then went to Norfolk, VA, where he was 1st class aircraft machinist for the Navy for 4 ½ years… Came home on leave, and as stated above met me and WOW!!!
Happy Birthday Grandpa Green (you were nobody’s fool!)
Denise