Dad's Eulogy

I am posting the eulogy that many of us put together for Dad. I do want to say taking June’s words and expanding on them with more stories and information was both difficult and enjoyable. We left out so many things. Each of us while writing it wanted to keep adding more and more. I look now at what we wrote/discussed and realize these things and more we will continue to retell, laugh and cry at when we are together. The reality is we will continue to tell the stories of our family and history and pass them on…and remember.

Anne
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Scripture:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
23rd Psalm

Bob was born to Barney and Sis Stephenson July 28, 1928 in Lawrenceburg, Indiana overlooking the beautiful Ohio River. He has a brother Wayne, affectionately known as Totsy, and sister who died as an infant, Betty Louise. He joined the Navy as young man of 17 and proudly served for three years.

He met Grace Norsworthy on a blind date setup by his cousin Dewey and Grace’s best friend Kat Love. They married in July of 1951 in Waynesboro and moved to Indiana. Bob started his career in the Glass Manufacturing business as a ware stacker and eventually moved all the way to the top position as Plant Manager. During his career, he moved his family to various states and even coast to coast twice. Bob and Grace had 6 children; Bobby, Jim, Susan, Bill, Char & Anne and they have grown to be successful career people. After a successful career Bob and Grace moved back to Waynesboro, but he suddenly lost Grace. A life without Grace nearly broke him.

Friends introduced Bob to June West and she was his salvation. This introduction soon turned into a love for each other. The family found out about June when Bob called his daughters and said “I had spaghetti and June had lasagna”. “June…June? Dad’s dating!!!” A short time later in August 1984, Bob and June were married and she became an instant member of the Stephenson Family complete with children and grandchildren.

Bob and June enjoyed golfing, gardening and making stain glass art pieces together. Bob was also an accomplished woodcrafter. He and June purchased a motor home and enjoyed traveling, visiting 48 states and most of Canada.

In 1999, Bob and June moved to Ward, Alabama. This was a blessing for Bob. He became involved in the community by joining the volunteer fire department and an active member of the Methodist church. In a very short period time, Bob made many friends and became an integral part of the community.

Although, his given name was Robert Carl, he also known as:
When in Stateline, he was Dewey Albert’s first cousin Bobby Carl, then also as; Bobby, Big Bob, Steve, Mr. Stephenson, Dad, Grandpa, his father called him Robert, Papa and he called himself the “The Old Man”.

The fact that he did not have a formal degree was never a detriment to his success in life and yet he was very proud of the educations of his children and grandchildren.

Bob was a loving son, husband, father, brother, grandfather and great grandfather and a precious father-in-law. He had many friends and he was also a good friend to them all. Bob was an unpretentious man. He was loyal and friendly with everyone he met. He had wonderful sense of humor and everyone who knew him will miss him.

I Corinthians 13

The Old Man

Dad at home on the back porch in Ward, AL on a mild January day, watching the birds and enjoying a fine Cuban cigar.

Pictures posted

Times-Free Press Obituary

This is the obituary which appeared in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press:

Robert Stephenson

WARD — Robert C. “Bob” Stephenson, 80, passed away Wednesday, March 4, 2009, at Jeff Anderson Memorial Hospital, Meridian, Miss.

He was born Saturday, July 28, 1928, a native of Lawrenceburg, Ind.

He worked as a plant manager (glass manufacturing) and served in Navy, World War II.

Preceded in death by wife, Grace Norsworthy Stephenson; mother, Mildred Redwine; father, Carl Conde Stephenson; sister, Betty Louise Stephenson.

Survivors include wife, June Slay Stephenson, Ward, Ala.; sons, Robert T. (Susie) Stephenson. Warner Robbins, Ga., James D. (Carol) Stephenson, Plant City, Fla., Charles W. (Angie) Stephenson. Raleigh. N.C., William C. (Jackie) Stephenson. Huntsville, Ala.; daughters, Susan Grace (Ben) Powell, Chattanooga, Anne L. (Frank) Jones, Raleigh, N.C.; brother, Wayne Stephenson, Cincinnati, Ohio; grandchildren, Lyndsey Hermanson, Robin Stephenson, Shelly Garvin, Jamie Stephenson, Andrew Stephenson, Lisa Joy Stephenson, Gavin Stephenson, Madison Powell, Cameron Powell, Hannah Stephenson and Rachel Stephenson; and eight great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be today, March 7, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the chapel of Freeman Funeral Home, Waynesboro, Miss., with the funeral to follow at 11 a.m. with the Rev. Jim McEachern officiating.

Burial in Waynesboro Cemetery.

Freeman Funeral Home of Waynesboro, Miss., is in charge of arrangements.

Merry Christmas!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty GOD, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Bill's email about Dad (Grandpa, etc.)

Hello all

Dad asked me to send everyone a message to let you know what has happened. I will call everyone tomorrow after the doctor's stops by and give you the latest.

Dad had his first chemo treatment for this new round of chemo this past Thursday. The treatments have made him extremely weak and Monday afternoon while heading into the little bathroom was so weak he went to the floor in the bathroom. June could not get him up so she called 911 and then Murry and Jean. His blood pressure and sugar were very low. At the hospital they gave him two units of blood and some food and everything was returning to normal. June stayed the night with Dad at the hospital Monday night. Tuesday he was do well and June went home to spend the night and planned to take Dad home on Wednesday. When she returned Wednesday morning Dad was not doing well and had a rough night. During the night they had to give him another two units of blood and early in the morning his breathing became.very labored. They gave him lacix to reduce the fluids and it helped him breath better.

June called this morning needing some help so Jackie and drove down today. I am staying the night with Dad and Jackie & June headed back to Ward to get a good nights sleep. Dad has been doing well while I have been here. He is very weak. He has eaten some dinner and a little ice cream for dessert. We are watching a little TV and hopefully Dad will be able to sleep tonight. A good nights sleep helps everything but it will be hard in the hopital.

That it is all for now talk to everyone tomorrow. I have my cellphone with me.

Love
Bill

Posted by Ben -- I'll add a bit more info Susan has received, tomorrow.

Emily Jean Garvin has arrived!

Emily Jean Garvin was born on the 19th of August at 8:38pm. She weighed 6lbs. 1 oz. and measured 18 1/3 inches long.

Shelly and Emily are doing well.

You can see more pictures of Emily at http://picasaweb.google.com/garvin.matthew/EmilyJeanGarvin

Sfincione recipe (finally)

Here's the recipe for the pizza things that we had at the reunion.

SFINCIONE: Makes 4

Ingredients:

Dough

7/8 cup water
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
3 cups unbleached white bread flour
1 1\2 tsp salt
1\2 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp rapid-rise active dry yeast

Topping

-6 Roma tomatoes, 2-3 regular tomatoes (you may want to seed them, since the juice can sometimes keep the bread from cooking)
-2 (or more) garlic cloves, chopped or diced
-3 tbsp EVOO -1 tbsp sunflower oil (or EVOO)
-2 smaller-than-a-baseball onions or 1 really big onion, chopped
-8 (or a lot more) pitted black olives, chopped
-2 tsp dried oregano (I like it almost powdery)
-6 tbsp freshly grated Pecorino cheese (or Parmesan)
-salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (for me, that means about a tsp of kosher salt and more than a tsp of freshly ground pepper)(FYI, freshly ground pepper makes a huge difference in taste)

1 (Bread machine*) Pour the water and oil into the bread pan. If your instructions specify that the yeast is to be placed in the pan first, reverse the order in which you add the liquid and dry ingredients.

2 (Bread machine*) Sprinkle the flour over, ensuring that it covers the liquid. Add the salt in one corner of the bread pan, and the sugar in another corner. Make a shallow indentation in the center of the flour and add the yeast.

3 (Bread machine*) Set the bread machine to the dough setting;use basic or pizza dough setting (if available). Press Start. Lightly oil two baking sheets. (We put down aluminum foil first to help with cleanup)

4 Make the topping. Peel and chop the tomatoes. (We don't peel them, but do remove the seeds and gel.) Put in a bowl, add garlic and 1 tbsp olive oil, and toss together. Heat the sunflower oil/olive oil in a pan and saute the onions until softened. Set aside to cool

5 When the dough cycle has finished, remove the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Punch it down gently and divide into four equal pieces.

6 Roll each piece of dough out to a round, about 6-7 inches in diameter. Space the rounds well apart on the prepared baking sheets. Cover the sfincione with an oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 10 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 425 F.

7 Sprinkle the topping over the crusts, ending with the cheese. Season and add the remaining olive oil (or however much more you think reasonable).

8 Bake near the top of the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the crust of each sfincione is cooked.


FYI: I hope to eventually post some modifications/instructions for the bread machine-less folks.

Madison

Bill's email

. . . received from Bill today

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Hello Everyone,

Hope everyone is doing well. I have been keeping busy. Just in case you did not know the Tour de France is about 2/3 complete. We have been following the race on-line and we get to see it on TV (delayed one day of course). The military person over our program here is also a biker. So we talk about the race and watch the finish most days on TV.

On our down day this past week we went shooting on one of the training ranges on the west side of the BIAP. I enjoyed the shooting. The cleaning of the weapons is not as fun but you learn everything about the weapon. I used SIG, Glock, and Beretta pistols and a MP5 submachinegun on the 25 meter range. Hopefully next time we will be able to shot some rifles. I believe we plan to go again in a couple of weeks. Something to look forward to.

That is about it for now except it has been hot, 110 to 117 everyday for the highs and mid 80s to low 90s for lows at sunrise. I am down to 6 more weeks in Iraq.

Everyone take care
Later
BS




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Calendar Updated

At the top right of this page is a link to the family calendar. I'd put in the birthdays and anniverseries I could remember, but someone (Lyndsey and Anne?) has added many more (thanks!). So you may want to check, and make sure all of your family's info has been added, and that it is correct.

Susan

PS Today is Bill's birthday. Happy Birthday Bill!