Jeff Franklin Gentry

1936 - 2019

Jeff Franklin Gentry, the only child of Wess and Louella Mae (Newman) Gentry, and the 'prettiest baby' his Mama ever saw, took his last breath at about 11:50 AM, on June 6, 2019, one day after his 83rd birthday!

Jeff was born in Canalou, Mo. on June 5, 1936. He and his family moved north to St. Louis to find work where his father prospered as a union boilermaker/welder and his mother worked as a nurse. Jeff was an only child and was spoiled by both parents. So spoiled that when his mother fixed a chicken or porkchop dinner neither of them would help themselves until after their son had eaten all he wanted. Jeff often spoke about playing on railroad cars with his friends and the one big mistake he made when he went swimming in the Mississippi River. He only did it once because Mama caught him and whipped him all the way home.

At the age of 15, Jeff was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease. His Mom said that she never worried as much or prayed more for anything in her life. Something worked because the disease went away or went into permanent remission. He carried the lumps the disease created on his arms for the rest of his life.

Jeff was a very active boy who, in today's world, would be diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. He was smart but school bored him so he seldom brought home a stellar report card. Not much of a student but quite the athlete, Jeff played several sports in school excelling at basketball. He spoke of scoring records he held but gained some local notoriety for fouling out of a championship game in just over only one minute. He graduated from McKinley High School, St. Louis, Mo. in 1955.

Jeff married his high school sweetheart, Naomi Faye Devenport, on June 10, 1955. They first met at school three years earlier when Jeff was escorting another girl, who was in the homecoming court, up some stairs. Faye was impressed with how Jeff steadied the girl by holding her arm and raised her dress so she wouldn't step on it as they ascended the stairs. She was so impressed that she turned to her girlfriend and said, "I'm going to marry that boy!" A few days later Jeff was rough-housing with a fellow tennis player in the classroom when an errant chalk board eraser that Jeff had thrown missed his friend and hit Faye on the backside. Jeff was embarrassed and very apologetic then took two quick swipes to brush the chalk dust off of Faye's rear end. Of course, the young woman protested about the unwelcome touching and Jeff stopped. Later that night he called Faye, lined up a date and the rest is history.

It wasn't long before they had their first child, Wesley Carlton, then Laura Diane came along. Jeff and Faye struggled to make it in their early years in the St. Louis area then Jeff got a break and hired on with a large general contractor that only built financial institutions all over the nation. Bank Building and Equipment Corporation of America (BBC) took their little family on adventures all over our great nation. As the banks were completed it would be time to move to another town in another state to build the next one. Usually they were only in a place for 6 months to a year. They bought their first home, an eight foot wide, blue and white Detroiter mobile home that Jeff towed from Indiana to California and back again with Faye following with the kids in the family car. After returning to Indiana, they had their third child, Layne Matthew, on November 20, 1963. Jeff's mother swore she would never buy a negligee for Faye for Valentine's Day ever again! The traveling and adventures weren't over after Layne was born. On to Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Ohio then South to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia moving several times inside the boundaries of most of those states. The old Detroiter went by the wayside yielding to two bigger mobile homes as the family grew and prospered. Jeff and Faye's kids saw places in our country that other children they met in all of the cities and towns they moved to could only read about in books. They swam in both oceans and the Gulf of Mexico. They saw Yosemite, the redwood forest, the nation's capital, Disneyland, lived in or visited many of our largest cities and so much more, all before any of them had reached the age of ten.

After Jeff moved up in the corporation and started working out of the Atlanta office, he and Faye bought their first real house in Newnan, Ga. in 1971. In the summer of 1973 they moved to Tucker, Ga. but by December of that same year Jeff was promoted to construction manager and transferred to the San Francisco division of BBC. By May of 1975 Jeff was transferred to the Denver office as construction manager where he and Faye stayed until 1982. After Layne graduated from high school Jeff decided to return to his roots with the company and go back out into the field running jobs and traveling around the country again as a project manager.

When Jeff first started working out of the corporate office he had to travel to visit jobs every week. Flying didn't sit well with Jeff and he often got air sick. So, what does one do when one gets sick while flying? Naturally, one starts taking flying lessons! Jeff got his pilot license and bought a plane. After he and Faye hit the road again they flew all over the country to see their kids and other family. Quite often Jeff would help friends out by flying them here and there due to an emergency or other urgent occasion. Truth is he was always looking for an excuse to fly his plane.

After returning to the field to be an on-site Project Manager for BBC Jeff and Faye lived all over the country again, just like back when they first began. They lived in Hilo, Hi., Lancaster, Ca., Utah, near Chicago and back to Hawaii. One assignment, in the mid 1980s, brought them to Alamogordo to remodel the First National Bank and the old Gerald Champion Hospital. They made friends here and loved the area. So, when BBC went bankrupt in 1989, Alamogordo was their choice to return to and spend the rest of their days. Since Jeff's sons also worked for BBC and the three of them were out of work at the same time they all decided to pool their money, move to Alamogordo and start Gentry Construction, Inc.

Jeff and Faye took up 2-steppin' during the 1990s. They could be found at the Senior Center, Desperado and Chaps kickin' up their heals at least three nights every week. They joined a dance group and made many lasting friends. Jeff and Faye were so good at 2-steps, waltzes and polkas that they took 1st and 2nd place in two events at the New Mexico Senior Olympics.

Jeff didn't have many hobbies, just dancing, work and eating. He tried but he just lacked the patience for hunting or fishing. He only had two speeds, high gear and sleeping. But Jeff loved to work, had many great ideas and he was very ambitious. Sometime in the early 2000s he said, "You know, I've done everything I ever wanted to do!" He sure did...and his wife and family were usually in tow. He was our horse and we all rode him to our own successes in life.

Jeff didn't ask anyone to do anything that he wouldn't do or hadn't already done himself. On a job in Pocatello, Id. in 1976 Jeff didn't like what he saw. So he took off his coat and tie and went to work cleaning up the site. He took control and barked orders. One workman said, "Wow, he's real friendly...as a rattlesnake!" Off and on throughout his life he was referred to as the 'White Tornado' due to his take-charge attitude and hard work ethic.

Sometimes it wasn't easy to like him but he was truly admired, loved and respected by family, friends and coworkers who knew him best. His family always lived with the security of knowing that their husband, Dad and Papa had their backs if they ever needed anything. There were never any doubts that Jeff Gentry loved his family and would do anything for them. On their wedding day, June 10, 1955, before they drove away, Faye's Dad approached the car and said to Jeff, "I've done the best I could...now it's up to you!" Jeff took those words to heart and most certainly exceeded his new father-in-law's expectations. Exactly sixty-four years later, on June 10, 2019, Faye was signing the papers for Jeff's final arrangements.

The last several years of his life were a struggle for Jeff as he dealt with Alzheimer's and diabetes. 2015 was a particularly bad year for him after suffering a heart attack then a stroke which left him bedridden for the rest of his days. Faye took extraordinarily good care of Jeff keeping him going all that time and was by his side, along with son, Wes, and granddaughter, Sierra, as he took his last breath.

Jeff was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife, Faye; son, Wesley (Elesha); son, Layne (Jana); daughter, Laura Diane (Richard) Silver; grandsons, Ryan Silver, Weston Gentry, Matthew Gentry and Reese Gentry; granddaughters, Rachael Ruiz, Staesha Gentry and Sierra Gentry. He is also survived by nine great-grandchildren.

There was no funeral. Cremation has taken place. A private memorial will be held later this year.