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Note: When he first got married, his father in law helped him start a business making hassocks. They were footstools made out of wood, vinyl or leather. A lid opened to reveal a place to put any number of things But apparently, they didn't sell well enough to maintain a living, so he went to work as a salesman in a furniture store. He also was an interior designor as in those days, only men were in that profession. He had a draftsman's eye and could draw quite well. He always would draw a picture of Micky Mouse anytime he was requested to by his children.
He had a love of music from an early age and when he was just out of the service he and two of his buddies went on a cross country drive to New York to check out the jazz scene. I, his daughter, Janice, only found out about this after he died. Among his papers was found a map of the United States issued by the Automobile club and on the back which was blank, each of them wrote a part of their "saga".
He was in the war but never saw any action. I believe he was an office clerk on two of the South Pacific Islands. Midway and Guam, I think. However he did miss the action that occurred on them. I thank God for that and always told him he had good timing. He saw China and in fact, the family has some of the pictures he brought back of the sights, mostly his buddies and the "girls".
He made many friends in the music business, some of them who were still around at the time of his death. Right before he died, in his delirium, he was playing a gig with his friend Ned. He helped to co-found the Society for the Preservation of Dixieland Jazz. They usually held their meeting once a month at some Elks Lodge or another. He played alot of music and became an officer of some sort or another through the years. He really enjoyed being the editor for several years of their Dixie Flyer. The members of the club honored him the year before he died for all his contributions and efforts in keeping the club alive and well.
He was devistated when his wife, Helen, died, and he never really recovered from it. He began to develop an early form of Alzeimer's, lost all his teeth and couldn't play his clarinet anymore. His health seemed fine, but he never felt like doing anything and pretty much gave up everything he loved to do. His daughters visited him as much as they could and were helping him in doing all the paperwork that needed to be done, banking , taxes, etc. He was supposed to come to his daughter Bonnie's house for Easter Sunday and he never arrived. His daughters went down to his house and found him after he had apparently had a stroke, staggered into the T.V. which went into the sliding glass door, breaking it. It looked like he had taken off all his clothes and staggered back to his bedroom where he attempted to get into bed but had fallen and lay with his body halfway under the bed. Judging by the newspapers out front this had happened two days prior. He was still alive, but never regained full consiousness and died about two weeks later in a nursing home.
His remains were cremated by the Neptune Society of Burbank and his ashes strewn in the same area of the Pacific Ocean as his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law. He lived a very full life and it was only the last two years of it that we just won't quite remember after a while.
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