Joseph William Austill, cont.

In 1942 when Joe was transferred to Emporia, Maurice was married and living in the South where he was a flight instructor in the Air Force; Margaret was living in Kansas City and Juanita was attending the University of Kansas. Bob was in junior high school. The Austills had lived in Lawrence a good long time, and did not want to leave - and Ida never did learn to feel that Emporia was home.

In 1954, Joseph retired from his forty-two years' work on the Santa Fe Railroad. He was honored by company officials and fellow workers. The couple moved to Eugene, Oregon, where their two daughters were now living and married, each with one son. Again, they hated to have to make a new home, but being able to live near their daughters and grandchildren helped make the move more welcome. In 1962, Joseph and Ida celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. It was a happy occasion, with all the fawily present, and even nature added to the excitement, because it was the weekend of the Great Wind, when Eugene was touched by the tail of a violent hurricane - a once-in-a-century happening.

Time was beginning to take its toll: Margaret died of cancer in June of 1963, leaving an eight-year-old son. The 55th anniversary, in 1967, was more subdued, many ways a very happy occasion, with the rest of the family all present.

Joe had remained in relatively good health until at the age of 82 he suffered a heart attack. True to form, he got up in the night, not able to breathe in bed, not wanting to waken his wife, and sat up the rest of the night in his easy chair. He probably would not have even called the doctor if it had been left up to him. He was put in the hospital and was there a week, suffering another heart attack before he died.

Maurice, who had visited Dad at the reunion the previous fall, was not able to come to Eugene; Bob flew up from California but the airport was fogged in, and the plane landed at Portland. The passengers were brought to Eugene by bus, but by the time Bob reached the hospital Dad was in a coma. We would like to think that Dad knew Bob was with him.

Joe is buried in Rest Haven Cemetary in Eugene, Oregon, next to his wife and near the grave of Margaret.

While he was never wealthy or famous, he left behind the best kind of legacy and memorial a man could have: the love and respect of all the people who came in contact with him, and children who are honorable and upright citizens, who honor his memory