On Friday, June 9, 2023, suddenly and without warning, our loving, amazing, awesome, Dad and Gramps, Roy Nelson Myers, left this earthly place and went to his heavenly home to be with his Lord and Savior.  He was at his beautiful home in Tennessee, having just finished a day's work in his shop with his brother Les.  In the blink of an eye, without notice, God called him home at age 83.  It gives us comfort to know that he was with his brother doing what he loved at the moment of his passing, and that he was able to visit his family and his family was able to visit him for much of what so unexpectedly turned out to be his final few months.

Roy was born on November 26, 1939, at the Myers home on Blockhouse Road in rural Maryville to Crousie and Ellen.  His Daddy was from Forest Hill and his Mama was from Six Mile, so they settled down halfway in-between.  A favorite family story goes that his Mama so wanted a girl, that she dressed him up as such when she first left home to go to church.  She never told anyone she had born a second son, but neither did she correct their assumptions.  A third son, Leslie, joined J.R. and Roy before their beloved sister, Annabeth, was born.

His Daddy worked at ALCOA and many other jobs, but sustenance came from the family working their 24-acre farm and hunting squirrels and rabbits in the knobs.  One of his earliest memories was living in the garage while the family tore down the old log cabin and built a new house.  It was an older time drinking from a hand-cranked cistern, dependence on an outhouse, exclusively wearing hand-me-down clothes, and corrections with a peach tree limb, but the requisite work ethic of life on a farm in the hills of Tennessee stayed with him until the end.  Yet the more important life-long principles came from his Mama's lessons (every daily activity was turned into a lesson) and her bringing her children up in the Baptist Church – first at Old Piney and later at Forest Hill.  He was baptized in the Little River and would often point out the spot to his grandkids as we would drive between Sevierville and Maryville on Ellejoy Road.

In 1957, the family loaded up their '49 Chevy and moved to California.  Roy stayed behind a few months, though, to graduate from Everett High School.  He then sold his mare and bought an airline ticket to surprise his family.  Having never been more than a few miles from home, it was quite the culture shock when upon landing at LAX, he quickly discovered it wasn't just a matter of asking which way to the Myers residence.  Even the phonebook wasn't much help with the number of Myers in Los Angeles County.  Luckily, he remembered the name of the specific city they had moved to and was able to reach his Uncle Drury to come pick him up.  Despite being a Future Farmer of America, he gave up an agricultural scholarship to UT in order to reunite with his family.

The family's spiritual home became First Southern Baptist Church of Artesia, where Roy soon fell in love with Shirley in the church's youth group.  They married on March 12, 1959, and raised two daughters, Cherie and Lisa.  Every Sunday after church, the growing Myers clan would all gather at Dad Dad and Grandma's house to eat Tennessee cooking, pick lemons, avocados, and flowers, and sing old-time country music in the living room – always capped with Rocky Top.  Their favorite California pastime would be to camp and ride motorcycles out in the desert.  Around the campfire, they would tell stories of how Roy got run over by the school bus, had his teeth knocked out playing baseball, tried to burn down the school in first grade,… and they would often talk about one day going home.

A highlight came in 1970 when the young family of four road-tripped for a month across 25 states in their brand-new '70 Chevy Impala – complete with seatbelts and A/C.  Always the fiercely protective father, a particularly memorable moment came when the youngest daughter got separated in the Smithsonian Museum.  As a result of the security guards not being helpful enough, Roy soon found himself detained until all were reunited a few hours later.  This first trip home sparked several more for him, his parents, and his siblings over the ensuing decades.

Roy graduated from Cerritos College with an Associate Degree in Welding Technology and later returned to teach it.  He was the best.  In one infamous episode during a competition, his work was so good that he was accused of cheating and had to repeat the contest with complete oversight only to impress the judges by performing with the same excellence thought impossible to achieve.  He was a union pipefitter whose reputation preceded him.  Being held onto as long as possible by his current employer and then being immediately called to the next job, he never went a single day without work.  He was remarkable at balancing the interests of his union, his company, and his men – never compromising on a job well done.  Notable assignments included Lion Country Safari (where his unofficial duties included watching out for escaped lions, rhinos, and monkeys), the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum (where he met its namesake), Disneyland (during the first major remodel of Fantasyland), and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (where he experienced the full force of the launch of the Challenger's ill-fated final mission from inside the local control room).

Roy retired back home to Tennessee and encouraged his brother to join him.  Together, they built two homes with their own hands, side-by-side, on Douglas Lake in Sevierville.  Their daughters and grandchildren would often visit, and Gramps would visit them in California and Idaho.  He has been a Gramps for 40 years, having five grandsons and two granddaughters to love on during his retirement.  He would take great joy riding his Goldwing into the mountains with his grandkids taking turns behind him hugging his waist.  Camping and fishing was a staple.  At the birth of each, their first gift was a pocketknife.  Homemade flips came next.  Shooting at targets and clay pigeons is also a favorite memory with Gramps.  Whenever we were with him, we knew we could reach into his pocket and pull out Certs mints and Juicy Fruit gum.

As we grew older, we appreciated more how he would take his grandkids to his old haunts and introducing them to innumerable cousins, would regal a third and fourth generation with an endless supply of stories and lessons from an older time.  Each of his grandkids has inherited different qualities from their Gramps, be it his intense dedication, irresistibly charming conversation abilities, warm welcoming immediate friend-making aura, love of gardening, family stories, intelligence, enviable athleticism into old age, and so much more.

In his final 9 years, Gramps became a Great Gramps to Josie and Charlie.  He loved traveling to California to spend time with them.  Whenever he visited at Christmas time, he enjoyed the traditional Christmas Eve meal at Sizzlers – a place he used to take the family for a special treat as Cherie and Lisa were growing up.

Prayer brought him through two coronary stents, two bypasses, and a career's worth of asbestos, but these minor setbacks did not affect his drive.  Though it abruptly ended much too soon, he died as he lived – concluding a job well done.  Our family roots go back to Revolutionary War patriots who were some of the earliest settlers of Tennessee (and perhaps beyond).  Tennessee will always run through our blood.

Roy is survived by daughters Cheryl Lynnette and Melissa Diane; sons-in-law Greg Sanders and David Gencarella; grandchildren (and wives) Justin (Erin) and Shaun (Vanessa) Sanders, and Michael, Nathan (Carolina), Matthew (Brynn), Carisa, and Carina Gencarella; great-grandchildren Josie and Charlie Sanders; younger siblings Leslie Eugene (Karen) Myers and Jannetta Annabeth Myers (Robert) Spogli; aunt Betty Tipton Seaton; nephew/nieces Debra Annette Tramel, Thomas Roy Myers, and Michelle Lea Myers; and grandnephews/nieces Benjamin, Elizabeth, and John Tramel, Wyatt Myers, and Allison and Taylor Scavo.  He was preceded in death by Mary Shirley Bailey Myers; parents James Crousie and Ellen Mae Seaton Myers; grandparents James Joseph "Doc" Mackneuton and Mary Joan Patty Myers, and Nelson N. "Buddy" and Jannetta "Jennie" Hall Seaton; and his older brother James Rayford (Ingrid) Myers

Services will be at Old Piney Grove Missionary Baptist Church on July 8 at 11:00 (826 Old Piney Rd, Maryville, TN 37803).  A celebration of life will be followed by the internment and concluding with a reception in the fellowship hall.  All who knew Roy at any point in his life are welcome to attend.  He was kin to so many and so friendly to all, that this may well be everyone who reads today's paper.  Details can be had by calling Miller Funeral Home at (865) 982-6041.