Thanks to all of you. It always makes me feel better venting to you guys and gals when something sad happens.
We had many, many great times together. He and my Grandmother would come to Alaska almost every other summer, for the whole summer. I also was fortunate enough to live with them while I attended my first two years of college. And I'm thankful that I moved to Texas, and was able to spend more time with them. He will be interned in the same vault as my Grandmother, and I know he was looking forward to that, as they were married for 67 years before her death in 2003, and he missed her terribly.
He walked to Texas after his family lost their Oklahoma farm in the dust bowl. He was 18 then, and fell in love with Texas from the start. He did not get far in school, but was a very savvy guy who was incredibly mechanically inclined. He kept the fruit packing equipment running all over the Rio Grande Valley, then later sold packing equipment all over Texas. He was also a well respected volunteer fireman, and later became the top man in the Rio Grande Valley's division of the Texas Highway Department, where he retired in 1984. He is survived and loved by three children, nine grandchildren, sixteen great grandchildren and three great, great grandchildren.