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- Obituary:
Robert (Bob) Jewell Grainger
October 8, 1927 to March 25, 2015
Bob was born in Tucson, Arizona, to John ("Jack") and Catherine Grainger.
Bob loved to play all sports, especially baseball and golf. He started playing baseball in elementary school. His freshman year in high school, he earned the award "Best All Around Boy Athlete". At age 14 he played for the Tucson American Legion. At Tucson High he played basketball, football, baseball, volleyball and tennis in spite of being a "shortie".
At the age of 27, in 1954, he started playing golf. During his golfing years he had three hole in ones!
His first wife, Helen, won the Southern Arizona Woman's Golf Association at Rio Rico Golf Course. But the Grainger family's first love was always baseball. His brother, John ("Bud"), was inducted into the Arizona Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bob also had a great love for music. He himself had a beautiful tenor voice and was an original member of the Tucson Arizona Boys' Chorus in 1939. On January 8 and 9, 2003, the Tucson Boys' Chorus performed in the PenceCenter. Bob was recognized on the evening of the performance and was touched emotionally when several of the young chorus members came up to him and visited with him.
Bob started working when he was 10 years old on a newspaper route with the Tucson Daily Citizen, earning 25c per day.
In 1944, he enlisted in the Navy. He served two years during WWII on the Cascade, a destroyer tender in the Pacific, where he and fellow sailors in 1945 sailed to Okinawa and endured the suicide raids and typhoon weather. The Cascade supported the occupation of Japan until 1946 when she sailed for the East Coast and was decommissioned.
After Bob returned home he worked for the Jarrold Drug Co. in Tucson, AZ. Later he was hired by the Brunswick Drug Co., and worked for them for 19 years. After leaving Brunswick Drug Co., he was hired by Ponca Wholesale in Tucson and worked for them for 15 years. During those 34 years he traveled about one and a half million miles.
He was honored as a salesman of the year for Ponca, State of Arizona. While working for Ponca, he and his first wife, Helen, won a trip to Italy.
In 1985, Bob married Shirley Johnson and went to work for the Dave White Municipal Golf Course. During those 20 years he worked for three pro-golfers, helping run the pro-shop.
Bob retired in 2006 and spent many hours working in his yard at home, helping Shirley, and loving his pets, Beethoven, Sammy and Miss Kitty.
Bob and his first wife Helen (deceased) had four living children: Robert H. (Darlene), Ronald (Bonnie), Catherine and one adopted son, Dirl (deceased). One daughter died after childbirth, Rhonda Lee. Bob also has three wonderful stepchildren with Shirley: Nan Marie Robertson, Kathleen Jeanette Wegener and Gilbert Clark Roth Jr. (deceased); eight grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren. Bob is also survived by many nieces and nephews and beloved niece, Betty Jarrold, who will greatly miss her favorite uncle "Tio".
Bob wishes to be remembered for the times he spent with his friends and requested that no service be held.
(Published in The Sierra Vista Herald/Review on March 27, 2015)
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1927 - 2015 (87 years)
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