Having a big brother that could do anything, one that merely had to look at something to know how it worked or figure out how to do it as he was doing it was very intimidating to his little brothers some 6 and nearly 13 years younger. The youngest brother would idolize him for the rest of his life.

He had the "Bad Boy" look and in the 60's looking and acting like as well as taking many of the jobs that the characters Elvis played in movies. (Never sure if this was by design or not) made him a bit of a "Ladies Man". J.R. would drive the coolest, fastest and newest cars in the family.

He spent some of his life “On the Lam” for misdemeanor crimes, most times eluding the law for years on end. Never really bad, just at the edge of the law. The youngest brother always made sure that when he took pictures of these cars he would be sure to not get the tag in the shot. Ironically he later became a Law Enforcement Officer for a while.

On the outside he appeared to be a know it all, Overbearing, opinionated, self centered but unlike his facade he was a very warm and generous man to those he cared about.

He traveled in and worked in just about every continental state, working in just about every skilled profession one could think of. Newspaper pressman, Automotive Body work, Custom metal fabrication, Boiler Maker, Steel worker and received a patent for a camper shell design and manufacturing them just to mention a few. His last profession was that of a Master Upholsterer that he learned in his late 40’s opening his own shop in the 1980’s in Missouri and generated some of the best Automotive interior and furniture restorations to ever come out of a one man shop.

In 1995 he was diagnosed with throat cancer and beat it. However lasting side effects of the chemo and radiation therapy was too much for him to cope with.

While on vacation to see family, that year, the youngest brother was told by him that he was useless, too weak to work at his profession that he loved and was moving from Missouri to New Mexico, with his beloved life mate Barbie, a place that he liked to call home, since living there as a teenager, to die and that this would be their last meeting and he wanted to be remembered no worse than he was at this time. However when the youngest brother was going through a rough time of his own, JR was the first call to see if he was OK.

The youngest brother lived by his wishes, not making any contact with him but learning of his well being from his older sister.

You may have guessed by now that I am this youngest little brother, JR and I had said our “Good-Bye’s” that day nearly 12 years ago, he is now truly gone.

Barbie, whom he later married was very loving and devoted to him and took very good care of him in his last days. He passed away in his sleep with good pain management. I talked with her on the phone and we were remembering all of the "Good Times". We all need to have them in our thoughts.

He has been and will be missed, JR will always live on in fond memories and stories that will be told by those that loved him. I write this in memory of my brother: