Leroy Hawkins

Leroy Hawkins, age 92, our father, grandfather, and great-grandfather passed away peacefully on Friday, November 14, 2014, at Caring Hearts Assisted Living Center in Pocatello, Idaho.

He was born January 8, 1922 in Elora, Tennessee to John William Hawkins and Mary Magdalene Yarbrough as their third child, and he had six siblings, not including one that died as an infant shortly after birth. His parents were farmers in south-central Tennessee and northern Alabama and Dad grew up there roaming around the woods and creek banks and often skipped school. On October 14, 1942, during World War II, he was drafted into the Army as a young man at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and after basic training, automatic weapons training, and practicing amphibious landings in Florida and the Carolinas, he arrived in England on January 29, 1944 as part of the 4th Infantry Division, 12th Infantry Regiment, Company M. After spending that spring practicing beach invasion techniques off the southern English coast, he waded ashore as a machine gunner on June 6, 1944 on a beach on the French Cotentin Peninsula code-named "Utah," adjacent to another beach code-named "Omaha." He survived the D-Day landing, they took the Cotentin Peninsula from the Nazis, went on to participate in the liberation of Paris (the 4th Division were there first), and fought in the battles of Hurtgen Forest and the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge), before being wounded. He fought under Teddy Roosevelt Jr. (on D-Day) and General George Patton later, and while these leaders received acclaim, Dad and his buddies did the fighting. He never watched the movie Saving Private Ryan.

On October 15, 1945, Dad married Martha Paula (Polly) Woods in Franklin County, Tennessee just before being discharged from the Army. They moved to the American Falls-Aberdeen area in 1950 where they farmed until 1952 when Dad was hired by the Union Pacific Railroad. He began as a section hand at Wapi (west of American Falls on the Idaho desert), later at Michaud Siding near the Pocatello airport, then in Pocatello railroad yards. For many of the later years his job involved hauling heavy equipment for the railroad. He loved to drive big trucks and was an excellent, skilled driver. His territory ran from La Grande, Oregon eastward to Green River, Wyoming and from Silver Bow, Montana south to Ogden, Utah. He retired from Union Pacific after about 40 years of service.

Our Dad was not an educated person, but it doesn't require an education to be honest, trustworthy, hardworking, and caring and he was all of these things and much more. He and our mother provided everything we children needed, sometimes going without themselves, and they raised a family including a pilot, nurse, attorney, and scientist on Dad's railroad salary. Dad was quiet and unassuming (mostly because Mom talked a lot!), and was a hard worker. It's hard work to be a railroad section hand in Idaho when it is 30 or 40 below zero and the wind is blowing, but in the 1950s and early 1960s he did it. Dad was strong in his faith and we are happy that he and mom are once again and forever together. The last 5 months were the longest they were apart in 69 years.

When our father came home from the London hospital and the war he did what millions of other surviving young men did by marrying their sweethearts, getting a job, raising a family and building the America we enjoy today. Dad did not talk about the horrific things he experienced in the war and the killing of others until very late in life, and even then he would cry as he remembered the names of those who died around him and what he had been required to do. Incredibly he was only diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome a few weeks before his passing after living for seven decades with the stresses associated with close combat. He never really knew that he was a member of the Greatest Generation, but indeed he was. He is our hero.

Dad, or Grandfather as everyone has called him for the past 40 years, was preceded in death by his wife Paula, by parents John and Mary (Maggie), by sisters Florence and Daisy, by brothers Ralph, Cecil and James (infant), grandsons Shaun and Drew Hawkins and son-in-law Steve Swore. He is survived by brothers Clifton, James Orville, and Clyde, sons Connie (Linda), Mike (Pat), Chris (Jennifer), Boyd (Felicia), and daughter Brenda Swore, grandchildren Kimberly Hawkins, Kristy Giron (Marcus), Kelly Hawkins (Aniele), Ashley Hawkins, Casey Hawkins, Nicholas Hawkins, Erica McGinnis (Loren), Heather Hawkins and Stephanie Stoddard (Jarom), great grandchildren Sydney and Judson Kochevar, Jacob, Benjamin and Vivienne Giron, Lyla and Ava Hawkins and Sophia McGinnis.

Our family would like to thank the staff at Caring Hearts Assisted Living Center, the staff on the 5th floor of Portneuf Medical Center, the Veterans Administration, the staff at the local Veterans Clinic, Helping Hands Home Health and Encompass Hospice for caring for our father. These are all special people, Pocatello is blessed to have them, and we are grateful. We are also grateful to Brock Wilks and Wilks Funeral Home for his assistance and understanding over the past several months with the passing of both our mother and father.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at the Calvary Alliance Church at 800 Marinus Lane in Pocatello, ID. A viewing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at Wilks Funeral Home 211 W. Chubbuck Road and one hour prior to services on Wednesday at the church. Interment will follow services in the Mountain View Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.wilksfuneralhome.com.