Edward Merlin Martin, 89, died of pneumonia in the early morning on Jan. 26, 2013, at Weatherford Regional Hospital.
Edward was born on Lopez Island, one of the largest of the San Juan Islands, in Washington state on Sept. 27, 1923. His father, John Edward Martin, taught him to fish there. His mother was Irene Lavinia Weeks, the first settlers on Lopez Island.
One of the most fun times in Edward’s life was running a reef net fishing boat catching salmon with his uncle, Ellis Weeks. During the war, he was a sheet metal worker, building battle ships such as the Missouri at the Bremerton Naval Shipyards. He was also a private first class in the Army, but did not see active combat. Ed and wife, Genette, were active in the church, being charter members of the Bremerton St. Luke’s Methodist Church and the Mimbres United Methodist Church.
Ed was also very active doing the thing he loved most – playing horseshoes. He helped set up some courts at the Mimbres Senior Citizen’s Center, where you could find him playing pool and pitching some shoes almost daily. He won the New Mexico Senior Olympics horseshoe tournament no less than 15 times. This would qualify him for nationals, where he won second place and a third. He was an avid member of the Dallas Cowboys fan club during the days of Dandy Don, Roger the Dodger, on through to even Tony Romo. His son Kirby’s way of watching the game with dad when they were far apart was to call the phone and let it ring twice each time the Cowboys scored or had an interception. It was their way of “high fiving” together.
Let me stop there, I have a phone call to make. “Operator, yes, God, let Dad watch the game on the big screen, and give me the phone number so I can let it ring twice ... go Cowboys!” Wife Genette just now got off the phone with Edward’s only brother, Derrald Martin’s wife, Beverly, who survived Derrald, and she said, “Well, now they can play golf together in Heaven.”
To quote my father’s words to me EVERY time I got to go out and play golf: “You guy’s hit ‘em far and straight!”
We love you, we miss you, and we know you are in a better place.
Survivors include his wife, Genette Copley Martin; sosn, Philip, Keith and Kirby and their wives, Karen, Ramona and Nety, respectively; five grandchildren, Robin, Jessie, Kristy, Heidi and Michael; and eight great-grandchildren, Marissa, Brittney, and Jodi; Blake; Octavia and Serenity; and Ethan and Silas, respectively.
His daughter, Teresa Mae Slayton, from Ketchikan, Alaska, preceded him in death on Oct. 18, 2008.
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