Melvin S. Canary

He was born April 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, NY. He began working at the age of 16 to help out his family during the depression. He joined the Coast Guard during WWII. He didn't want to be in the Army or the Marines and the line at Navy recruiting was too long, so that's how he wound up in the Coast Guard. He served on LST169 and even received a good conduct medal.

After his discharge from the Coast Guard, on March 30, 1946, he married Evelyn Bernice Levy at the Hotel Peter Stuyvesant in New York City. They lived for six years in a duplex in Queens and had a daughter, Adrianne. They moved to Lindenhurst, Long Island, had a son, Lawrence and spent five years there before moving to New Mexico. He was a blue collar worker, mostly driving delivery trucks for companies such as Drake's Cakes and Creamland Dairies.

He was a big sports fan. He was a very good baseball player and even had a contract from the Chicago Cubs after his discharge, but he wound up turning it down. He was still able to enjoy playing baseball, as he joined a semi-professional baseball club on Long Island and played every Saturday. He would take his daughter with him to every game and turned her into a big sports fan too.

While he worked, all he talked of was retiring. He finally did,in his mid 60's and enjoyed the good life, doing a little traveling and following the Mets, the Cowboys and the Rangers and watching action movies and westerns.

Melvin's wife of nearly 65 years passed before him in February 2011. He is survived by his daughter, Adrianne and her husband Bill who live in New Mexico and his son, Lawrence and his wife Lora who live in Colorado and his grandchildren, James & Melissa Shrenk, Angela and Lawrence Abeyta, Crystal and Billy Jones, and Elizabeth and Michael Wawrek, and his great grandchildren, Cameron and Drew Abeyta, and Hoyt Jones.