Michael Leonard Markey

Michael Lenny Markey (known as Lenny) 79, left us peacefully on the evening of March 16th at the Fresno VA hospital. Blood clots in his abdomen took his life in a couple of weeks. It was quick and really unexpected.He had great care at the Fresno VA and told me he trusted them. A few years prior he had a blood clot in his left leg and the doctors told him they have to amputate it. He had a quirky way with words and He told the doctors first amputate my head and if that works you can take my leg. So after refusing the aputation options the doctors sent him to Stanford VA and they saved is leg. He left behind family and friends that loved his lively and funny antics. Always engaged in Opal and Gold mines, building Madrone furniture, playing games, and loving Tiffany and his dogs,Zeus and Gracie. Born September 18th 1945 in Chicago, Ill at the age of three he had a rough start spending 5 months in the hospital after falling out of window located on the second story of the building we lived in. He had a fractured his skull but survived to live a life very different and off the beaten path. In 1962 He joined the Navy and originally was sent to the Air Force Academy to study radar after doing well in IQ exams. However Lenny was attracked to the daughter of the Commander of the base and after a date he found himself in Viet Nam for the rest of his Navy career.. While on the Bon Homme Richard aircraft carrier where he had a job on the deck waving in the landing jets. After work he created a party room in the back of his locker and played guitar, etc with his friends. He saw the world and sent home gifts from exotic places just like the AD says. After the Navy he spent time with Musicians and partying and dancing in Blues clubs of Chicago. He came to San Francisco in 1973 where his brother Peter Markey had opened a Natural Foods Vegetarian café and bakery. He worked as a baker and did a great job. He also,became a vegetarian and went to an electronics technical school in SF. After he graduated he left the bakery and went to work for Xerox repairing equipment. I went to visit him once at Xerox and he showed me an invention of his he called the Phoenix which he used to diagnose and repair equipment. After a while he took a job with Seagate Electronics and was given a red Mustang and a position as the west cost Seagate technician. He left SF and moved to LA with his second wife Linda. During this period in the 1970's he acquired the Opal Queen mine in the Virgin Valley Nevada with a friend of his. Several years later his friend passed away and he became the sole owner, He and Linda lived in LA and Nancy and I visted them once and I really don't remember what we did. In 1985 he returned to San Francisco and became an electrician. He worked at the SF International Airport and other big jobs. He also worked for me in my restaurant in Cotati for a while. He married his third wife,my manager Kristy in that period.
Over the years our parents retired and took charge of the Opal Mine during the summers. All of the family including our Chicago cousins found their way to the Queen( as Lenny called It). Our mother loved the mine and noodling in the tailings for opal which she did find. In the 90's I visited him with my sons Rob and Will we did some digging and Lenny offered my sons a chance to run the BackHoe front loader but I turned that down since they were 12+ years old. ??Lenny added another claim to his Opal Queen called the Miserable Mitch and he did find a vein of black opal in the Mitch in the late 90's but I never saw any. His knowledge of opals mines was amazing and he was once interviewed on YouTube with regards to his Opal mines. While in LA he got a job acting in a movie about Phil Spector the music producer who murdered his wife. He played Phil in the movie. He had the curly hair and gaunt look similar to Phil. He never had much fear and just did whatever. The movie never was released but replaced by a Hollywood production with Al Pacino and Meryl Streep.
Tiffany came to see the Opal Queen and met Lenny. She liked mines and he liked Tiffany and they became a item. After Living in LA with Tiffany he married Tiffany moved to Oakhurst, Ca. They lived in a small house in Oakhurst till he passed. He told me that Tiffany was the girl he always was looking for. They were a good working team and Lenny taught her electrical skils. They also did lock horns from time to time. For a couple of years they did some wiring for some large camera installations for my company Markey's POS and Camera Systems. Lenny spent his last years doing electrical jobs, building lamps and tables from Madrone wood, playing games Balderdash and Yatze with friends, reading the Economist, Archeology Magazines, Science News and science Fiction. He even wrote a Sci Fi story and it can be found on Amazon. Lenny was always actively engaged in projects, and worked up till the time he ended up at the VA. One week he was planning to come and see me to build a 3 story doll house for our grandaughter Hayden and next week he was in the Fresno VA IC ward attached to every machine they had.. He was always ready to help me out. We will always miss him. RIP Lenny!