(08/31/1943 – 10/20/2002)
Gerald John Juers a.k.a. Jerry or Gerry, was the middle child of the 7 Juers kids borne to Harry & Helen Juers. But Gerry would only know a life with 5brothers, as his older sister Helen died before he was born. Gerry then lost his dad a few months before his 5th birthday. Born in the Bronx, Gerry moved to Oyster Bay with his mother Helen & his brothers, where they lived in the infamous apartment in the Moore’s Building at E. Main & Route 106 (South Street).
I always enjoyed being around Uncle Gerry when I was young… he was loud & boisterous & fun, and strong like a tree. He could carry me & most of my cousins on his back at the same time. I remember him being married to Aunt Amy, & I kinda had a kid-grownup crush on her… Aunt Amy was my favorite. They had two kids, my cousins Corinne & Jerry Jr. Gerry was kind of a bruiser on the streets of Oyster Bay, known my many as “The Whale”, and from what I’ve heard he had quite the reputation around town. He was a fiercely loyal brother and a badass. Sadly I lost touch with him after I moved away to Florida in 1978.
Sometime later, I’d say in the late 80’s or really 90’s maybe, he was injured in a pretty bad car accident in New York, and essentially became disabled. My dad finally talked Gerry to move out to California. My dad made apartment arrangements for him, & Uncle Gerry lived in Sacramento until he died in 2002. He looked nothing like the man I remembered, while sitting at a piano bar with my dad & me, as we drank Grand Marnier and sang with the pianist after having dinner there. That was my last real memory of Uncle Gerry. I was contacted by an old flame of his before Aunt Amy, a woman Susan Hagelmann, who was really enamored with Gerry in their youth, & I have her to thank for the color prom picture you see below. Maybe I can get more stories from her.
After his car accident, his move out west was the catalyst for the Miracle of the Medals story from 1994. See, Gerry had been given his younger brother Roy’s military medals after Roy was killed in Vietnam in ’67. So when it came time for him to move, he only took what he could carry I suppose. I’m sure he didn’t remember Roy’s medals were in his dresser bottom drawer when he left. He had a roommate then, who eventually threw out that old dresser. In came James Knight, the sanitation worker who picked up the dresser, found the medals, and turned them in to the VFW Post in Hicksville. The medals were reunited with the family after no one really knew where they’d been the last 15 or so previous years. It was a great moment in our family & Uncle Gerry was the key that opened that door. I’m grateful to him for keeping them safe, & they hang on my office wall behind me to this very day.
So here are the few pictures of my awesome Uncle Gerry, in no particular order. It’s very important to the whole family to have as many pictures as possible. Since I didn’t have a camera at an early age, I have very little, so I rely on all of you (& whatever I can find on the Internet & Facebook) to get pictures of everyone. As you can imagine, with our large family, it’s a monumental task, so please help by emailing me whatever pictures you may have… we’d all be very grateful! Or, you can mail me what you have, I’ll scan them at high resolution & mail them right back, either way. Thank you so much 🙂
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