(10/20/1937 – 11/23/2009)
My dad Ken was pretty much my idol & best friend (next to God). He was smart, funny, opinionated, stubborn, loyal, talented, loving… all the things you could want from a dad.
I’ll add posts or stories about him in time, but here’s a partial collection of his pictures. As you can imagine, I have quite a few. However, if you have images of your own, PLEASE submit them using the uploader at the bottom of this page… thanks! I can never have too many pictures of my dad.
Ken was my father; borne as the 4th child to Harry Paul Juers & Helen McGinley, he first lived briefly in an area of the Bronx called Clason Point, but mainly grew up in Oyster Bay, at 5 East Main St. I guess they liked the #5… there’s a Mambo named after it, I believe.
Ken never had commitment issues… he married. 4 times. The first never really counted (at least for me), since it was before my mother. I believe Charlotte Carlson was her name, but that’s about all I really know about her. She was apparently diagnosed schizophrenic, and her parents were anxious to marry her off. Dad was in the Navy then, and when he came back, they married I think in early 1961. It wasn’t long after he learned about her condition that the wedding was annulled very quickly, about 6 weeks later. After that, he married my mom Joyce E. Asaro, and together they had my sister (Lisa Ann Juers) late in 1962 & me (Roy James Juers II) in mid 1965. They divorced in 1970 when I was 5. Dad then met & married Joan Zawolik in 1972, & together they had Amanda Brett (late-1976) & Alyson Brooke (mid-1978). He also raised stepdaughter Karrie Wyatt (b. 1984) from when she was just a toddler, thru his marriage with Roberta Cole Wyatt, whom everyone knew as Bobbie.
Ken lived in the Bronx NY as a boy/adolescent, then moved to Oyster Bay some time after his dad, my grandfather Harry, died in 1948. Nana escaped to the city & wound up in Oyster Bay, where she cooked for the Roosevelt family, as Teddy Roosevelt’s old summer White House office was in the building they lived in. How that all happened I don’t know. But later, dad & my mother lived in Bayville, & after they split, he & Joan lived in Glen Cove & eventually East Northport, NY. In the summer of 1978 (white I call the year of the great exodus), dad relocated with his pregnant wife Joan (carrying Alyson), to Sacramento CA, in the summer of 1978. That’s where Alyson was born. He then lived in Orangevale, Citrus Heights & finally retied to & died in Chico, CA.
Ken developed Stage 4 lung cancer & despite a terrible prognosis, chose to fight it with radical chemotherapy, & went through the initial rounds of it with flying colors. But afterwards, when he began the maintenance chemo, it was too much for his body & he developed complications that he couldn’t recover from. Dad passed away November 23, 2009; he was just 72.
As a US Navy veteran, Ken was laid to rest, interred with his brother Roy, at Long Island National Cemetery at Pinelawn, Plot V1806, Farmingdale NY, in a military ceremony on May 6, 2010. A bottle of Grand Marnier was devoured by his survivors in his honor, at the Bonanza Italian Ice stand in Oyster Bay, where he often took my sister & I as kids.
He keeps tabs on me I think. He had an affinity for butterflies, especially the Monarchs, and I’d be out & about doing my thing in some random place, no foliage nearby, and a Monarch butterfly would swoop past me out of nowhere… all I can do is say, ‘Hey Dad…’ I can’t begin to even articulate how much I miss him.
Kenneth R Juers’ Memorial Service
This is Dad’s memorial service. It’s been on YouTube for some time, but no one really goes to my YouTube channel; so, here is the memorial service for our dad, Kenneth Robert Juers. Rest in peace, Pop. We love you!
My Life As I Remember It- Ken Juers
The following is a transcript of a writing that my sisters & I found, as we went thru Dad’s things, after he passed away in November, 2009. “My Life, As I Remember It” By Kenneth Robert Juers, at age 66.3 February 23, 2004 Outline: * Earliest memories * Growing up in the Bronx * Schooling […]
Me & Dad at the Ballgame…
October 9, 2003 Dad & I have always had a great passion for the New York Yankees. I remember, at that time, feeling like time was gaining on us as a family, for whatever reason. Dad was 66 & not in the best of health, even though, all things considered, he was doing pretty well… […]
Pictures
As you put your cursor over each picture, you’ll see its title.
Click any image to enlarge it; from there, navigate left & right in the sequence by using the little arrows.
Clicking on the enlarged image again exits you back to the photo grid.
If you have any pictures of Ken, please upload them here. Bear with me, I’m still looking for a good solution for people to upload their own pictures.
After you’ve selected them & hit “OK”, be sure to click the Begin Upload Now! button… thanks!Try it out! We need more pictures if you’ve got ’em!
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