Herbert Eugene Lovejoy

Herbert Eugene Lovejoy (Gene to his friends and family) was born in the tiny town of Reed Springs, Missouri to Frank and Lois Lovejoy. He was the oldest of four children and had two brothers, Donny and Bobby, and a sister, JoAnn. He had an amazing head of curly black hair and intense green eyes, compliments of the Irish side of his family, the Fergusons. The family lived in a rustic log cabin that is still standing on the banks of the river where Dad grew up thanks to the preservation efforts of the town Reed Springs. When Dad was 10, an epidemic of Scarlet Fever hit the small community. His father died and Dad almost died as well. His fever was so high, he lost most of the skin on the bottom of his feet. He couldn't walk for a year. He would remain flat footed with that signature gait that we all identified as our father's for the rest of his life. Growing up in small town America, Dad attended the local high school at Blue Eye where he played the trumpet. He had after school jobs as well to help out with the family, who struggled after Grandpa's death. With the advent of World War II, Dad moved to California. He wanted to join the war efforts, but he was turned down in every branch of the service for those famous flat feet. He joined the California State Guard until he joined the Merchant Marines where he served in a gunnery position during General Quarters. During General Quarters one morning in the South Pacific, the crew knew a Japanese sub was in the area They never saw the sub but they did see the torpedo launched at their ship which passed harmlessly under the bow. Dad loved to tell this story and laugh about how the Japanese torpedoes were notoriously unreliable. Dad loved being on the open ocean and he was very proud of the vital lifelines provided by the Merchant Marines. While Dad was very proud of his service to our country, it would not be until 2010 that he finally received his Veterans benefits. In World War II, the men of the Merchant Marine suffered the highest casualty rate of any service and were denied veterans benefits until 1988. Dad was so proud to finally receive his military ID and he carried it in his wallet with great satisfaction. It was while he was in California that he married our mother, Barthella. The couple married just after WWII and settled in the beautiful valley of Exeter, just 49 miles south of San Francisco. Dad worked for Lockheed on the Birds Eye Missile project in the 60's. If you knew our Dad, you know he loved to fish. It was his great passion. He often told us tales of going out deep sea fishing in California and the strange creatures they would pull up from the deep ocean waters. They turned inside out when brought to the surface! He transferred that love of fishing to the rivers and lakes of Arkansas when our family moved to Arkansas to be near my grandparents and look after them. He was patient with us, teaching us to fish when we were kids, although he had to spend most of his time with us pulling our lures out of trees and brush. When our family moved to rural Arkansas in the mid sixties, there were no jobs for Dad. No industries like Lockheed were available for his job skills. So Dad remained in California, working and living in a small apartment near our Grandma Lovejoy, sending back letters and money for several years. When finally he was able to join us, Dad found work at local dam and later as a security officer for Weyerhaueser before finally going to work as a machinist at U S Electrical Motors in Mena. He drove the 42 miles to Mena every morning at 5:30 am. He loved the early morning hours, the quiet and the beauty of the world coming to life. He stopped at the dairy twice a week and brought fresh milk in returnable glass bottles. There was always a treat in his lunch pail and we would scramble when Dad got home to be the first to grab it. In 1970 Dad's left hand was caught in a machine press. He was rushed to the hospital in Fort Smith where eventually he would lose most of his hand. Dad compensated for this injury for the rest of his life. It was a life defining injury which Dad refused to be defined by. Then, in the late 80's, Dad fell from the rafters of a storage shed he was building for their RV and broke his back. He never recovered full mobility after this accident and slowly over the years lost his ability to turn his head or lift his arms. Still, nothing slowed our Dad. He just developed his own ways of compensating. Our dad was an avid reader and loved science fiction. In his last years, he devoured hundreds of books and ran through three Kindles. He loved the Hunger Games series, which he read when he was 90. Dad had a beautiful voice and often sang and whistled as he worked. One of his favorite songs was a WWII song called "Fraulein". He loved blue grass music and anything with a fiddle. Dad loved carpentry and he loved building and painting projects. Their home was filled with Dad's work plant holders, benches, porch swings. He once built a wooden donkey pulling a cart and painted it in bright colors. Two of his porch swings still welcome family. He built a cradle for his first grandchild which was passed to each of his grandchildren. His workshop was always a happy clutter of organized tools, parts saved from just about everything and the plans for his next project. After Dad retired, he and Mom bought a motor home and then later an RV and they travelled to the Gulf on several trips, always looking for sunshine and places where Dad could fish. Our father loved everything that lived. He seemed to always draw small children, cats, dogs any living, breathing small thing found its way to Dad. Dad had infectious laugh and a happy, cheerful disposition. He was a peace loving man who sought to get along with everyone. He had a tremendous work ethic. At Christmas everyone in the family looked forward to Papaw's No Bake Cookies. Mom and Dad made cookies for their friends and family each year. Mom and Dad loved their idyllic home under Mount Ida Mountain. They gardened and cared for their home in a loving partnership that spanned 70 years. Dad passed just 10 days after our Mother. They are together and for that we all rejoice. We are the remaining family Doug and Pati, their children. Jason, Dawn, Mandy and Jenny, their grandchildren; Alyssa, Katy, Samuel, Jamie, Elijah, Casey, Jayden and Maddox. Their many nieces and nephews Linda and Tom Adams and their children, Lynette and David: John, Wanda, Juanita, Brenda, Lonnie, Mary Lou and David. Services will be held at the Gaston Cemetery at 2 pm Tuesday, February 7. The Reverend Russell Hull will hold the service and Ronnie Mayberry will provide the special music. There will be a military honor guard and presentation of the American flag followed by a short graveside service and flag ceremony presented by his grandchildren. Pallbearers will be Jason Brown, Joe Eick, Scott Jones, Eric Sanak, David Gaston and Tom Raymond. Honorary pallbearers are Tom Adams and John Gaston.