|
JAMES LAMB JR. Age 83, passed away Thursday, June 28, 2012. Dad grew up in a small town in Western Kentucky of 2000 people called Sturgis. His family was Catholic in a town that didn't think much of Catholicism. In spite of a small a town education; he graduated from Notre Dame University in 1952 with a degree in Commerce. While serving in Washington, D.C. during the Korean war, Dad met and married my mother and together they had Karen Kuel and her husband Steve, Jim Long and his wife Kathie, Mike Long and his wife Karen, Gina Richardson and her husband Marty, Nancy Hughes and her husband Bill, John Long and his wife Debbie, Matt Long, Chris Long and Paul Long. Finances were never a part of their decision when it came to having children. They simply followed their faith. After the war, Dad came back to Sturgis and became quite the entrepreneur. He opened a Dollar General Store, an insurance company, part owner in a drug store, owned and managed many rental homes, and ran a 600 acre farm that had been in the family for generations. All of these businesses were supported by the wages of the local coal mines and all were prosperous. But in 1968 the coal mines shut down. And because of that, all of Dad's businesses started to fail one by one with the family farm being the last to be sold. Dad was 42 years old, with nine children, a wife that had never worked, with no livelihood. This might have been the undoing for a lot of men. Instead Dad navigated our family through this difficult time with grace and dignity. He moved his brood from a five bedroom antebellum home in Sturgis to a three bedroom track home with one bath in Nashville, found a job managing a department store which was the first time that he had ever worked for someone else. It was a very humbling experience for my father. But he stayed the course because he understood the responsibility he had to Mom and to the nine of us. Dad loved us always but he's in heaven only because he loved us when we were totally not lovable. Without going into detail...we all tried his patience. And we are lucky that he didn't kill each and every one of us. He counseled us to lead responsible lives and bailed us out when we didn't. He liked to call these counsel sessions "workshops", and we had plenty of them. With nine children, you might think that we didn't receive that one on one attention, but he had the gift of making each of us feel like an only child. Dad's greatest love was Mom. We were planning their 60th anniversary for October. Mom thinking she was getting a "Notre Dame" graduate and thus easy street., Dad thinking he was getting a woman that loved to cook and clean. Both were wrong but still they grew together and created a life of commitment, adventure and laughter. A Rosary will be recited at 10:00 am, followed with a Memorial Mass at 10:30 am, Monday, July 2, 2012 at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 1502 Sara Road SE, Rio Rancho, NM. To view information or leave a condolence please visit: www.danielsfuneral.com Daniels Family Funeral Services 4310 Sara Road SE Rio Rancho, NM 87124 505-892-9920
|
