It’s been several weeks since I first heard that Joe Cheevers died in a house fire. I waited for confirmation in an obit or a death announcement, and saw none. It’s not the norm to have a long-term Trego resident die without comment – so I’m going to share a little about the Josef Cheevers I knew.
I’ve been acquainted with Joe for over 60 years – the off and on conversations of two men whose work took them out of the Trego area for long periods of time, and returned for brief stays and eventually retirement. I recall stories of Joe working in Africa and Antarctica – places that needed his skills, but places that had some drawbacks to living there. Joe was six or eight years older than I, and I recall Dad working to get him into the Navy, and set him up to know all the knots presented in boot camp. I’ve never been certain that nudging Joe into enlistment was such a mitzvah as Dad thought it was – but I suspect it was the basis of his career operating equipment.
Visiting with Joe at the post office a couple years back, he smiled that I had remembered his horse – Joker – and remembered his name from before he entered the Navy. The obits for his sister, Susan, and brother Rocky, who attended Trego school at the same time I did are online. I can’t find any mention of Joe – and he deserves a remembrance, even if this story turns out to be it.
Trego's Mountain Ear 