Richard Elayer Mcallister

Richard Elayer McAllister was born June 3, 1922 at the Peachtree Farm, outside of Piedmont, Wayne County, Missouri to Stephen Pinkney McAllister and Alice Elayer McAllister. He was the younger brother of Lois Elizabeth and Donald Stephen and the older brother to Alice Nell. He attended Patterson High and entered the U.S. Army Reserve in 1940 and joined the Army Air Corps in Feb. 1942. Richard was involved in the Air Offensive European Campaigns as a medic for the 303rd Bomb Group, 359 Medical Group. For this service he was awarded the Bronze Star. He was discharged in 1945 and headed to St. Louis, where his sister, Lois Payne and her family lived. He worked in that area for several months when he and a good buddy from childhood, Shorty Tinker, decided they’d head to the mountains of Colorado where a dam was being built near the town of Granby. The job was great and good paying, but the real “pay-off” was meeting a little redhead who was a waitress at the Circle H Corral Restaurant and Bar right above the valley from where the construction work was taking place. Just under 2 months after meeting Marilynn, October 7, 1946, they were married in St. Louis with his sister, Lois, and her husband, Jim Payne standing up with them. Richard loved construction work and this meant a “few” moves for the newlyweds…Patterson, Stanton and Paris, MO.,then a move to Stanton,ND where he worted on the Garrison Dam for a year and where their daughter, Janet, was born in 1948. In Oct. they headed to Seattle, WA with their ‘24 Schultz trailer behind a ‘41 Chrysler. Richard worked for Boeing Aircraft and that could have been where they settled down, except for an earthquake in April of 1949 Marilynn didn’t handle that too well, so they headed to Oregon. MO where Richard worked on a levee job until the Mississippi River flooded. The building of Bonny Dam had begun and the family moved to St. Francis, KS until completion. Next came a job at the Rocky Mtn. Arsenal, near Brighton, which paid $2.25/hr. Job completed, the nest move was to Carvel, MO on a hlghway job. Richard followed the construction jobs so moves to Kingston. Doniphan and Poplar Bluff, MO followed. Harris Frazier, Richard”s buddy from the Army called and mentioned he’d begun a job, with $herwin -Williams paint in Lubbock., TX and there was a need for another salesman. The family moved there and Richard began his “’white collar” job. He was transferred to Springfieid, MO where their son, Terry, was born. Grass was beginning to grow under Richard’s feet and in May, 1957 they moved to Aurora, CO to where he worked at Buckley Airfield building runways. Moves to Pueblo, where he ran a high – speed CatDW75, and Palmer Lake followed. Richard worked on the construction of the Air Force Academy while there. Kansas came calling, and the family moved to Wakeeney, where there was work on the building of Interstate 70 and then a move to Newton. Son Richard was born there. Back to Colorado to Colorado Springs, Dupont, the Rinn area east of Longmont and then a new home on the county line iust east of Longmont. Richard worked on missile silos at Hale and laying I 25 during this time. Richard had promised Janet she wouldn’t have to change high schools and true to his word, she was able to graduate from Longmont. In 1969 Richard and Marilynn moved to Carr, CO and had a star mail route from Brighton to Carr daily and, for a short time, to Cheyenne. In June 1973 upon Terry’s graduation from high school, the moved to Yuma County where Richard “retired” from road construction and began wokring with his son-in-law, Jerry Graham. He loved all of the jobs that farming entailed and began raising honebees as a hobby. In 1987,as he turned 65 and was making the decision to work just planting and harvesting time on the farm, he suffered a strangulated intestine which required the removal of 8o% of his small intestine. During surgery, Richard lost his vision due to dangerously low blood pressure. He came home from the hospital a much different man, physically, from the one that went in but somehow maintained his optimism on life. He and Marilynn moved to WrayVen Manor in 1992 and then to The Towers in 2006.He was a handyman extraordinaire and tore into any job with intesity, regardless of how difficult. He was a man who wore many hats and was equall comfortable working his bees, driving a tractor, laying bricks, maintaining his garden, doing genealogy, servicing vehicles, building his honey house, building a baby cradle or dancing with his Marilynn Saturday nights at the Moose Lodge in Longmont, CO. When Marilynn, his wife of nearly 60 years passed in June 2006, all the family was concerned that Richard would just lose the will to live.. well, not him! He was able to take the Hillcrest bus to WRAC and continue walking, which was something Marilynn and he had done and enjoyed so much. Roberta Schaffner at Hillcrest held exercise class, Richard called it “fingers and toes”, twice a week and he loved that. A week before he celebrated his 89th birthday on June 3, he told Janet “you know, hon, I don’t know any reason why I can’t live to be 100″ and few people who knew Richard would have doubted it would happen. He lived his life to the absolute fullest with happiness and a positive attitude throughout his 89 years and if it’s one thing his family has learned from him it is that no matter what life flings at you – you do the job with a smile on your face and enjoy the heck out of what God has given you. Richard was proceeded in death by his parents, brother, Don, Sister, Lois and Nell, brohter’s in-law, Jim Payne and Monte Brooks, half-brother, Bill McAllister and his beloved wife, Marilynn. Richard is survived by his daughter, Janet and husband, Jerry of Wray, son, Terry McAllister, and wife, Cara of Burns, WY, and son, Richard James McAllister of Sterling. Grandchildren include Jami Gornault and husband, Nick of Springfield, MA, Stacey Besse and husband, Derrick of Cheyenne, WY, Jessica McAllister and Fiance’, Kyle Baldwin of Cheyenne, Mary McAllister of Laramie, WY, Zachary McAllister of Wray, Toby Graham and wife, Courtney of Sterling, Marty Graham and wife, Leela of Philadelphia, PA and Melody Godsey and husband, Chad of Stillwater, OK. Richard is survived also by great-grandchildren, Grace and Sullivan Graham of Sterling, Madison and Grady Godsey of Stillwater, Lily Graham of Philadelphia, aKaden Baldwin of Cheyenne, WY and Taryn Renee Besse of Cheyenne. Also surviving are nephews and nieces.

Memorial services were held at the Wray United Methodist Church in Wray, Colorado with Rev. Norman Stott officiating on Friday, June 17, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. Memorials may be given to the Wray United Methodist church in Wray, Colorado. Spellman-Schmidt Funeral Home was in charge of arrangments.