William Olin Richardson

William Olin Richardson

Age 87, born in Floresville, Texas on August 27, 1925 to Thomas Monerlyn Richardson and Lucy Caroline Spencer, the last of seven children.
My father decided young that life was better spent being happy, so he decided that life would not get him down. He told me often, it was God and me; with God all things are possible. Dad completed high school; then joined the Navy. He was an Aviation Radioman third class and served during WWII from the base in Florida for two years, six months and six days.

When he went home to Texas, he began college at Texas Tech and met the love of his life, Lavenia Christine Grisham. They were married on March 20, 1948. David Wayne was the first born on November 8, 1948, then Kenneth William followed on April 29, 1950. They settled in living with Granny and Granddad (Dad's folks) while Dad finished his accounting degree at Texas Tech. Dad was self-employed for the next few years. Then along came Linda Marie on January 2, 1960. The story was told that if Linda had come on the New Year, they would have gotten $100. I don't know if this is true, but it makes a good story. I was next on March 6, 1961, then Ellis Jon (Jon to everyone) on September 5, 1962, then James Paul (Paul to everyone) on December 13, 1963.

Between Pam and Jon, the folks moved to Arizona where we lived for twelve years before moving to Colorado. Dad went to work for the Oil and Gas Companies, the last was Shar-Alan Oil Company from which he semi-retired after Lavenia passed away June 10, 1981 from cancer.

The children were grown and moving on so Dad built a house in Denver and lived there until about two years ago. It seems that all of Bill's adult life, he got up with the sun to greet the day and have his devotional time with God. His favorite pass time was talking about the Bible and teaching others what the scripture said.

In October of 2010 the family discovered Dad's health was not good. We discovered that his kidneys had failed. He was determined to get better, so for the next several months he worked with Doctors to monitor his blood and manage to stay off dialysis until December 1, 2011. At that point it became life or death, and he chose life. It wasn't an easy struggle, about every two months he was back in the hospital with an infection, but he would tell me not to worry. "You wait and see, I'm going to get better and then I will be taking care of you."

Everyone that came into contact with Dad would tell me what a wonderful man he was. He was loved by the folks at the apartment. They would keep me updated as to how many time they saw Dad and how he was doing. We got up and got him to Dialysis three times a week by 6:15 a.m. Then there were the doctors' appointments, but he was always so cheerful and ready to get better.
He went to the nursing home in December from another bout with an infection. For two months he went between the hospital and the rehabilitation, until he became a permanent resident at Woodridge Terrance Nursing Home. The staff fell in love with him. We joked about his girlfriend on staff. He continued his dialysis and was doing so well for six months, then caught pneumonia for the third time. He couldn't fight it off this time; his body was just too weak. William passed from this life on July 23, 2013.

When I called his last remaining sister to notify her of Dad's passing, I found that she was racing him to the gates of heaven; she passed at 11:10 on the same day. I'm sure they walked through the gates together.

William is survived by his six children, 12 grandchildren, and 12 great grandchildren.

The family and friends of William with join by the graveside next to his beloved wife on Saturday, July 27, 2013 for a short goodbye. There will be a wake to follow to celebrate his life and share old family photos.