LYONS, OHIO HISTORY & PHOTOS
LYONS, OHIO HISTORY & PHOTOS
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GILLESPIE, Doyle E. February 26, 2006  Doyle E. GILLESPIE March 26, 1932 - February 26, 2006 Location: Eagle Funeral Home in Morenci Visitation: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 from 2-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Service: Wednesday, March 1, 2006 at 11:00 a.m. Cemetery: Lyons Cemetery in Lyons, Ohio Doyle Gillespie, age 73, of Lyons, Ohio, passed away Sunday, February 26, 2006, at Flower Hospital in Sylvania, Ohio. He was born on March 26, 1932, in Lyons, the son of Forest & Gladys (Gleckler) Gillespie. On June 26, 1954, in Pittsford, Michigan, he married Ellen Densmore. She preceded him in death on October 9, 1997. Doyle was a life long Lyons resident. He served in the US Army during the Korean War. He worked with his father and eventually bought what is now Doyle Welding in 1958. Doyle was very active in the Lyons community. He was a fireman for the Lyons-Royalton Fire Department for forty three years, a Fulton County Deputy for twenty five years, a member of the Lyons VFW Post #7574, a member of the 40 et 8 in Adrian, Michigan, the American Legion Post #368 in Morenci, Michigan, the Masonic Lodge in Wauseon, Ohio, and played the drums in the Michigan Weekenders Band for many years. Survivors include two daughters, Luann (Mel) O'Hara of Lyons and Vicki Smith of Swanton, Ohio; a son, Steve (Sharon) Gillespie of Lyons; six grandchildren; and one brother, Ivan Gillespie of Fairbanks, Alaska. Besides his wife, Ellen, Doyle was preceded in death by his parents and two sisters, Carol Shaw and Doris Gillespie. Funeral service will be on Wednesday, March 1, 2006, at 11:00 a.m. at the Eagle Funeral Home-Charles Fink Chapel in Morenci with Rev. Mary Burroughs officiating. Burial will follow at Lyons Cemetery in Lyons, Ohio. There will be a visitation on Tuesday from 2-5 and 6-8 p.m. DOYLE GILLESPIE, 1932-2006 Businessman wore many hats in Lyons LYONS, Ohio - Doyle Gillespie, who worked tirelessly as a business owner, fireman, sheriff's deputy, and village councilman in the one-stoplight town where he was born and raised, died of congestive heart failure Sunday in Flower Hospital in Sylvania. He was 73. "Work was his life. He loved to work," said his son, Steve, who now owns Doyle Welding on West Morenci Street, the business Mr. Gillespie bought from his mother in 1958 and sold to his son in 1994. His son remembers the first words out of his father's mouth when the elder man woke up in a daze after a brain aneurism. "He told me he was working on a carburetor. He thought he still had the nuts and bolts in his hand," Steve Gillespie said. "He always told me, there's the right way, the wrong way, and my way. He made it hard to love him, but everybody liked him. You knew where you stood; he never beat around the bush." Mr. Gillespie's son said it was difficult not to pick up his father's work ethic, no matter how gruff the old man was. The elder's 12-hour days at the shop made up only a portion of his schedule: he worked part-time as a Fulton County sheriff's deputy for 25 years starting in the 1960s, and was a volunteer with the Lyons-Royalton Fire Department for 43 years starting in 1950. Outside of work, Mr. Gillespie was hesitant to sit still: He spent his weekends as a drummer in a local swing band named the Michigan Weekenders Band. The band played for three decades, stopping only in recent years when some of its members died. Born and raised in Lyons, Mr. Gillespie graduated from Lyons High School in 1950, and left the year after to fight in the Korean War. He served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman, then was switched to the motor pool after fixing a Colonel's jeep in the midst of some heavy shelling. After a shrapnel injury, Mr. Gillespie left the war in 1953 with the rank of corporal, having been denied promotion to sergeant for knocking two teeth from a captain's mouth during a late-night brawl. "He was quite a live wire," his son said. Upon returning from the war, he met his wife at a dance hall in Michigan, and started working at his father's shop, then called the Lyons Oil Garage, as a mechanic. Years after buying the shop, he chose to focus on his joy: welding and fixing farm machinery and agricultural equipment. Mr. Gillespie also served on Lyons Village Council for 13 years in the 1960s and 1970s, and the village water board after that for four years. He was a member of Lyons VFW Post 7576 and American Legion Post 368 in Morenci, Mich. Surviving are his daughters, Luann O'Hara and Vicki Smith; son, Steve; brother, Ivan, and six grandchildren. Visitation will be tomorrow after 2 p.m. at the Eagle Funeral Home-Charles Fink Chapel, in Morenci, where services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday. The family suggests tributes to the Lyons-Royalton Fire Department or Lyons VFW Post 7576 Article published Toledo Blade on Monday, February 27, 2006 |
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Lyons Ohio History This page was created February 27, 2006 Web page by Charles Paul Keller http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~keller/lyons/work/obit57.html
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