Page 69 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2020- Online Magazine

ARMY
KOREA

LUBBOCK

his birthday Venoy and Mary moved back to Lubbock in 1994,
in 1955 in the and he has never left. Mary died in 1997, and though
living room devastated, Venoy wanted to live a long life for his
of the home family. He now has eight grandchildren, nine great-
where they grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
would soon At 94 years of age, he remembers when they brought
grow their own electricity to his house for the first time. These days, he
family. gets the news on his iPhone. He has hitchhiked from
Alaska to West Texas, watched the waves of Hawaii,
Venoy was and has seen the Northern Lights. He has seen and
always a hard done so much but is quiet and unpretentious. In fact,
worker. He he really has always done his best at the thing that was
started driving in front of him.
a beer truck
when he was 15 I recently asked him, “Grandad, in all your years of
years old and living, what is the coolest thing that has ever happened
then worked to you?” It took him not a second to answer: “having
at Reese Air Force Base, refueling planes for 20 years. my kids.” And his unspoken message to all of us
I once asked him if he was as ambitious as me when it grandchildren is, “Do the best you can to do the right
came to his career. He said he always thought it was thing.” The thing my grandfather is doing now is living
better to do the work in front of you and to do it well out that advice in front of our eyes.
and not worry about anything else. What did matter to
him was his family.

Venoy had two daughters, Gayle and Mary Ann, and
a son, Larry. He raised them the way he was taught,
with an abundance of love and discipline but always
making his wife his first priority. When Venoy
retired from civil service, he and Mary returned
to Oklahoma to enjoy the life that he remembered
before the war. They fished, played cards, and kept
their grandchildren for long weekends. He returned
to Alaska several more times because his brother had
moved to Anchorage and he found that he actually
enjoyed it there outside of Army-life.

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