Obituary: Fair, Joseph Willard “Joe”
Age 88
He was born in Broken Bow, Nebraska on October 4, 1925 to Homer and Lena Fair.
He was the youngest of 10 children, eight sisters and one brother, all deceased.
Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Marianna (Annie), three daughters Martha Carlson of Tucson, AZ, Susan Fair of Seattle, WA, Lisa Anderson (Scott) of Nine Mile, WA, five grandchildren - Re Carlson (Candace) of Calgary, Alberta, Tessa Carlson of Seattle, WA, Camie, Joey and Andrew Anderson of Nine Mile, WA and Annalee Fair of Seattle (his fur grandchild).
He also had many nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews and great-great-nieces and nephews.
Joe attended school in Broken Bow and joined the Army Air Corp. in October of 1943.
He served as a tail gunner on the Antagonizer, the 1,000th B-29 built in Wichita, Kansas.
He was stationed in Guam and flew 28 missions over Japan.
He met Marianna Chappell in 1948 and they were married on October 29, 1950 in Broken Bow.
He learned the electrician trade on the G.I.
Bill, worked in Broken Bow for five years, moved to Wichita, Kansas and worked for Boeing for 13 years.
He came to Spokane in the spring of 1959 working at Fairchild on the Boeing “sky speed” program for six of those years.
When the program was over he was scheduled to be sent back to Kansas but his family didn’t want to leave Spokane.
He went back to Wichita, worked for several weeks, gave his notice and came back to Spokane.
He eventually got hired by Washington Water Power as a heavy equipment operator and was their loyal employee for 23 years.
He retired in 1988.
He was a member of Trailblazers of WWP.
Joe loved his family, adored his grandchildren, and was a good friend to so many people.
He was in a bowling league, for years at Colonial Bowl, as well as other bowling allies.
The men on his bowling team are lifetime friends.
He was a member of Northwood Presbyterian Church, served as a deacon and elder, attended regularly the Men’s Breakfast and belonged to the “Top of the Hill Gang”, a group of men who volunteered their time to paint, fix up etc.
at Camp Spalding on Davis Lake, First Presbyterian in Post Falls, Idaho, Westminster house, the Presbyterian office in Millwood, and various other places.
Joe had a great sense of humor and one of his favorite comebacks when asked “How are you Joe?”
was always “I’m Fair.”
Joe was quite an entrepreneur as a kid.
He would purchase two boxes of candy bars on a Saturday morning, make the rounds of all the car dealers in Broken Bow, sell them all, then in the afternoon he would set up his pop stand between the two sale barns and sell pop all afternoon.
In the evening he would be at his popcorn stand on the north side of the square selling popcorn or at the fairgrounds selling popcorn.
He saved his money to buy his bicycle and then he had a paper route.
He will be greatly missed, rest in peace dear husband, father, grandfather, brother, friend.
A Graveside Inurnment will take place at 9 am on Thursday, August 14, 2014 at Fairmount Memorial Park, 5200 W. Wellesley, Spokane, WA followed by a Memorial Service at 11 am at Northwood Presbyterian Church, 6721 N. Monroe, Spokane, WA.
Memorial contributions may be made to Northwood Presbyterian in Joe’s memory.