Gerald “Jerry” Eugene Lucas, beloved husband, father, and grandfather passed away Monday, March 11, 2024, at age 85 due to complications from an injury. Jerry was born on February 25, 1939, in Long Beach, California to Kenneth Leroy Lucas and Virginia Sargert Lucas. After high school graduation, Jerry served in the United States Navy where he was an Aerographer’s Mate Second Class Petty Officer. When he finished his service in the Navy, Jerry began a career in air traffic controlling, moving across the United States to work at various major airports. After years working in the field, he began teaching, and even spent a year in Kabul, Afghanistan, teaching new air traffic control computer systems at the airport there. He retired in 2017.
Jerry was an avid outdoorsman. He loved hunting, gold prospecting, bird watching and driving on the back roads of America to find ghost towns, old gold mines and rivers and streams to fish. He loved fishing most of all.
*He married Bobbie Lee in 1966 in San Francisco, California. They moved to Nashua, New Hampshire in 1967 and had two daughters. Jerry and Bobbie divorced in 1979.
He married Betty Ruth Yeary in 1984 in Elko, Nevada. *Betty had five children from her previous marriage. Jerry and Better were just a few months away from celebrating 40 years together.
Jerry was diagnosed with Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia in the summer of 2021, but he didn’t let that stop him. He still traveled, fished, and spent time with his family. He was well on his way to remission when he had an accident and needed to be hospitalized. After months in the hospital, he chose to go home and spend his last days with his family. He was surrounded by loved ones when he passed away.
Jerry was preceded in death by his granddaughters, Kira Sue and Misty, his *step-daughter, Rhonda Dobbs, and his only brother, Donald, passed away less than a year ago. He is survived by his wife, Betty of Poteau, Oklahoma, his daughters Jennifer (Lucas) Sullivan of Aloha, Oregon, *Deborah (Lucas) Busby of Athol, Idaho, and his step-daughters Kim Dobbs of Purcell, Oklahoma, Candy (Dobbs) Munoz of Boulder City, Nevada, Tonya (Dobbs) Rivera of Poteau, Oklahoma, *and his step-son Jay Dobbs of Purcell, Oklahoma. He is also survived by numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren who all loved him very much.
The family will celebrate his life with a private service, and they will gather with more formality this summer in Boulder City, Nevada at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery where Jerry will be laid to rest with full honors.
*The original obituary was published by the Poteau, Oklahoma funeral home. I have added names and dates for context and to acknowledge my dad’s entire family. My stepmom was very particular about who was in this obituary, but I felt that as times passes, it’s better to clarify and honor the entirety of the family and also because people doing family history 100 years from now may be very confused. -Jennifer