Perry Loofbourrow, 97, passed away peacefully in his sleep on October 20th, 2020 at 8:00am. Perry was the oldest of the Loofbourrows and related family members and he took some pride in that fact. Unfortunately, he fell victim to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Perry was born in Hollister, Ca. on June 23,1923, while the family lived at 920 Sunnyslope Rd. Perry attended local elementary schools, graduating from Hollister High school in 1941. After high school Perry worked for Bank of America for 18 months.
He joined the Navy and served 3 years 3 months during WW2. The Navy experience was quite an adventure for the country boy. The first thing that happened was his then girl friend introduced him to her best friend, Elizabeth, who eventually became his wife on Nov. 28, 1943. He spent two years recruiting Aviation Cadets in San Francisco, station at the Ferry Building, then fourteen months on a sub tender stationed in Guam. He was discharged Dec. 25, 1945 as a Yeoman 2c.
During the recruiting years there were two train trips to Denver, Co. – the first time on a train and the first time he had ever seen snow. When he was transferred to sea duty it was a train trip from one coast to the other, ending at the New York City receiving ship. While waiting for the ship to be finished, Elizabeth came to New York and they enjoyed 7 weeks of sight seeing. The sight seeing included a trips to Washington D.C., Coney Island, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the sub ways and other sites of New York. When the ship was finished it set sail for Guam. A day going through the Panama Canal was a lifetime thrill. Then on to two weeks in Hawaii and finally arriving in Guam Dec.1944. After VJ-Day, the ship took a tour to Tokyo, Shanghai and Manila. Each city was an exciting liberty. He sailed from Manila for the USA on a Destroyer Escort, a very fast ship, just what he was hoping for.
Perry’s 97th birthday with his sons Jim and David and grandsons Evan and Ethan
After the war he returned to Hollister and took over the poultry ranch when his father retired. He processed and packaged all the eggs from 50,000 hens, distributing them to stores in Hollister as well as under other packers’ brand names in other areas. He served as director to the California Egg Council, Nu-Laid Farms CoOp, San Benito County Planning Commission, and Sunnyslope County Water District, and president of the Hollister Rotary Club.
Perry sang in the Presbyterian Church choir and community chorus, as well as many weddings and funerals. He enjoyed snow skiing and S.F. 49ers football games. The days were usually started at the coffee shop with his buddies, where all the local gossip was exchanged and most of the world and nation’s problems were solved. Too bad nobody listened to their solutions. At 9:00 AM it was off to the Post Office to get the mail and get on with the day’s work.
When he retired from the ranch, in 1979, he and Elizabeth moved to Grass Valley, Ca. where Perry worked part time as a real estate salesman in Grass Valley, Ca., activating his real estate license he had had since 1946. Sadly, Elizabeth passed away in December 2014, after 71 wonderful years of marriage.
Many of you that attended our Family Reunions over the last 16 years remember Perry. He had so many treasured memories of our early family. This was in part due to grandmother Mary Catherine Loofbourrow’s move to Hollister to live near her youngest son Ben and his wife Edna, Perry’s parents. He remembered many stories about G’ma Loofbourrow. He remembered all of the family members, from all over the country, coming to visit her and his family. All of the Loofbuorrows born to G’ma Loofbourrow in the later part of the 1800s and their children born at the beginning of the 20th century would visit. His memory of these visits was amazing. It was these memories that connected Perry as hub to all branches of our family. We will all miss him and the memories he so willingly shared.
