Bernard Francis Fahey

Bernard Francis Fahey, Jr. was born October 11, 1925, in Louann, Arkansas, to Bernard Francis Fahey, Sr., and Gladys Literal-Fahey. After residing briefly in both Oklahoma and California, the family settled in the Houston Heights in the early 1930’s, as the Depression was taking a stranglehold on our country. On May 1st of 1937, his Hamilton Junior High School band had been conscripted to play the music for the annual May Fete at nearby Love Elementary school. There the handsome young trumpet player in the white band uniform caught the eye of blonde-haired, hazel-eyed, freckled Julia Ann “Judy” Bozon, the “Duchess” of the May Fete “court” and for her, that was that. She had found the man she was going to marry! They grew up together in the Mayberry-esque atmosphere of the Depression-era Houston, enjoying movies at the Heights Theater and hamburgers and milkshakes at Prince’s Drive-In. He graduated from John H. Reagan High School and on his eighteenth birthday in 1943, like so many young men, he went downtown to enlist, walking around and around the block where the recruiting office was located trying to decide whether to enlist in the U.S. Navy or the Army Air Corps. He finally decided on the Army Air Corps because “In an emergency, figured I could walk farther than I could swim” and as a result of that one decision, he soon discovered how much he loved flying and was off, courtesy of the United States government, to see London; Paris; Nice; Venlo, Holland; and many cities in Germany and Belgium that a boy from The Heights wouldn’t have even dared dream of! Flying over Ireland, the land of his ancestors, on training missions, he was mesmerized by the verdant hills and vowed that if he made it through the war, he would return to see that landscape at eye-level. On track to be a pilot on a B-26 medium bomber, he was SO disappointed when his eyesight betrayed him and he had to settle for being a Radio Operator & Navigator. There was no way for him to know what a fortuitous blessing that would turn out to be until Captain Robert Turner, the pilot assigned to his crew, was called up at the last minute to fill in on a mission for another crew whose pilot had become ill. His trusted pilot and good friend, Bob, never returned from that mission, killed in action somewhere over Germany. But for his eyesight, he could have been that pilot. Like most veterans from The Greatest Generation, he never talked much about his experiences overseas and when he did, he downplayed his role and would shrug his shoulders and mumble something about, “We had a job to do and we did it.” While stationed in Europe, he wrote to Judy Bozon and proposed marriage and, to no one’s surprise, she accepted. At the end of the war in 1946, he returned to the U.S. and enrolled at Texas A & M University on the “Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944” (a.k.a. the “G.I. Bill”). When an upperclassman who had remained stateside during the war and never seen combat attempted to haze him on campus, he flattened the guy with one swing, explaining as he stepped over the senior that he was in a hurry to get his education and get on with his life and did not have time for such games. (Well, that was the “G-rated” version of what he told us he said, anyway!) He strode directly to the Dean’s Office to “quit before they could expel me” and drove straight to Houston to enroll at University of Houston. And thus began yet another of his passions that would endure the rest of his long life, Cougar Football, as 1946 just happened to be the same year U of H first fielded a football team! His beloved “Coogs” brought him tremendous joy and more than a little frustration for all the rest of his days! Upon graduation from University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, he married that May Fete “Duchess” in the chapel of Christ Church Cathedral. With his G.I. Bill, they bought a little three-bedroom, one-bath bungalow in the brand, spanking new Oak Forest subdivision (which seemed SO far from The Heights!) across the street from Mary Alice and Jack Weyand, one of Judy’s best girl friends and her returning G.I. husband, and he began to make a career for himself and a life with his new wife. Their first daughter, Kathleen Ann, arrived in 1952 and their second daughter, Robyn Marie, arrived five years later in 1957. As any parent can understand, the next twenty-five years were consumed raising two girls safely to adulthood, getting them educated and working hard to fund braces, prom dresses, family vacations, college and weddings. Yet the flying “bug” had never left him and somehow amidst all his other responsibilities, he finally managed to become a pilot, obtaining his civilian single-engine Private Pilot’s License in 1962, followed by his instrument rating (IFR) and multi-engine rating, all true labors of love. In 1976, he and Judy became grand-parents for the first time when Shane Tyson Davis was born in the bicentennial year, followed by Eliot Grayson Davis in 1983. Both “Grand-Dad-Bite-Ears” and “MeMaw” reveled in grand-parenthood. But in 1989, he endured the devastating loss of Judy, the love of his life, to a sudden heart attack. It helped his spirits tremendously that grand-daughter Bonnie Joy Noufer arrived in 1990 and grand-daughter Annemarie Elise Noufer made her appearance in 1994. They resided out-of-state but he relished watching them grow up, buoyed between in-person visits in both directions by photos via faxes and computers, which thankfully were coming on the scene to make long distance grand-parenthood even more fun! Several years after retiring, he realized the dream he and Judy had once shared to move to the Texas Hill Country and relocated to Kerrville, Texas. There he enjoyed small town living to its fullest! His ready smile, tender nature, quick, dry wit and gentlemanly demeanor helped him make fast friends. He played bridge and joined the Trailblazers walking club. While living in Kerrville, he also enjoyed traveling to Alaska; Washington, D.C.; New Orleans; and, at long last, Ireland, the green, rolling hills he had admired from the air during the war. And in 2005, he attended the 60th reunion of the 394th Bomb Group in Pennsylvania, with Eugene Harrison, of Crockett, Texas, the bombardier and only other living member of his original seven-man crew. The two of them joked as they boarded the plane in Houston that it was nice to finally get into an airplane together when they weren’t getting shot at! Despite how much he loved Kerrville and the wonderful friends he made there, in 2014 he agreed to move back to Houston to be closer to some of his grandchildren and his five much-loved great grandchildren, who were the source of so much energy, entertainment and joy for him in his final years. They visited him frequently at Parkway Place, where he faithfully “coached” his University of Houston Cougars from his favorite recliner in front of his big screen television! He slipped peacefully through the veil on the morning of February 21, 2017, wearing one of his favorite University of Houston tee-shirts, with his sweet, gentle, much-loved and trusted caregiver, Chessie Johnson, by his side. He was preceded in death by his parents, Bernard Francis Fahey, Sr., and Gladys Literal-Fahey; his brother, Roy Eugene Fahey and his wife, Julia Ann Bozon-Fahey. He is survived by his daughters, Kathleen Davis and husband, John, of Houston, Texas; Robyn Noufer of Chipita Park, Colorado; grandchildren Shane Davis and wife, Brooke, of Houston, Texas; Eliot Davis of Austin, Texas; Bonnie Noufer of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Annemarie Noufer of Manitou Springs, Colorado; and great-grandchildren Maeve O’Daniel; Christian O’Daniel; Keegan O’Daniel; Keira O’Daniel and Grayson Davis, all of Houston, Texas. According to an African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” That holds true for end-of-life care as well. His family thanks all our friends and extended family who encouraged, guided and supported both him and us when the going got tough. Heartfelt thanks, too, to the University of Houston Cougar football team and their coaches, who gave him so much to look forward to, be interested in and get excited about! And we are also forever indebted to the residents and hardworking, dedicated staff at Parkway Place Assisted Living and Parkway Place Skilled Nursing. And last, but certainly not least, we are eternally grateful for Cheryl Lewis and the private duty caregivers at Life Enhancers, most especially Chessie Johnson and Hattie Aubrey, all of whom were selfless, unfailing and unflinching in their loving care of the best Husband, Dad, Grand-Dad and Great-Grand-Dad in the whole wide world.

Bernard Francis Fahey

October 11, 1925 - February 21, 2017