Jay Strickland Fleming

We lost our father last night, our dad Jay S. Fleming passed away into the loving arms of our late mom Jay moved from Tampa in 1932 to Quincy and moved back to Tampa around 1936. Jay’s dad Raymond built the family home on Bruce Street, and Jay lived there until he went to college. As a teenager, Jay went to Plant High School and worked at the Old Meeting House which was a family-owned restaurant,

After Jay graduated high school, he married Betty Jean Smith in January 1951, and they moved to Gainesville. Jay went to college at University of Florida, Jay and Betty lived in married housing called Flavites. Life was fun. The school was in a dry county so that meant going to the next county to buy booze or make it yourself. Jay and Betty liked Gin so a bathtub instead of a backseat was the perfect Imogene, and together they are digging life in Heaven with Jesus, their Savior. Dad will be terribly missed by his daughters and their families, grandchildren, great grandchildren, his nephew Rick and Rick’s family and many friends. Jay lived in Indian Harbor Beach, Florida and was the ripe old age of 90 at the time of his passing.

Jay was born in Tampa Florida on May 7, 1931 and was the son of Raymond and Ruth Fleming. He is predeceased by his mother and father, his older brother Raymond, son Douglas and grandson Emmanuel. Jay is survived by his three daughters: Patricia Husband and husband Thomas, Lynda Clay and husband Timothy, Cay Tomich and husband Rex. The grandchildren include Diana Husband and husband Mike Grasberger, Caylee Clay and husband Ralph Rosario, Carston Clay, Jordan Craig and wife Erin and son Jack, Austin Craig and son Carston, Carlton Craig, Keaton Craig, Camille Craig, Stetson Craig, Brenson Craig, Lauren Craig, Travis Tomich and fiancé Maya and daughter Maddison, Lauren Follett (Tomich) and husband Zachary, sons Liam and Callen. There are also many loved cousins, nieces and nephews.

spot. A mobile still. Then Jay ran into a deer and the tub joined Jay in the front seat. Jay and Betty were having too much fun and the university said bye.

After that, Jay was drafted by the Army during the Korean War where he served as a Radar Technician on the front line. The Army required a middle name when Jay was drafted so the S. was added to Jay’s name. While Jay was overseas, Betty discovered she was pregnant and Douglas Jay Fleming was born. Douglas only lived two months and died of childhood leukemia. Jay returned to the states nine days after Douglas was buried.

After enduring going to war and the lose of his son, Jay matured and returned to college at University of Florida and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. While finishing up his last year of college a daughter, Patricia Lynn Fleming was born in 1956. After graduation from college Jay and Betty moved to Melbourne Florida with their new daughter and built a house in West Melbourne. Jay started working for Radiation Corporation as an Electrical Engineer.

Radiation was an up-and-coming company working on projects to support the early space programs. Jay worked on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Another company Harris Printing took notice of Radiation and asked if they could buy Radiation and help grow Radiation. So Harris bought Radiation and Radiation grew so quickly Harris sold off the printing part of the company. During this time another daughter, Lynda Jean Fleming was born in 1959.

After Lynda was born Jay moved with the family to Ft Lauderdale to work on Xerox Copy printing power supply for Harris. While in Ft Lauderdale he bought a 16' Owen boat where he would go fishing by himself catching sailfish and other trophies. He once attempted to cruise up the JFK sail boat to say hi but was told to leave. Jay and Betty had their third daughter, Susan Cay Fleming who was born in 1964.

Around 1966 Jay returned with family to West Melbourne and finally settled in Melbourne Beach. Jay continued to work for Harris on several programs including the B1 bomber, TDRSS which is a NASA satellite tracking program for space communication. Jay even worked on the very first Elk tracking collar with Craighead brothers.

During this time Jay’s daughters were growing up and in school. Jay started hunting again, mostly dove and quail. Jay would take Patti and Lynda with him dove hunting and allow the girls to fetch the birds after he shot them. Patti later became Jay’s hunting buddy on the weekends. The family also did a lot of family camping throughout Florida and some of the southern states. Sometime Jay’s parents Ruth and Raymond would join in on the camping trips and the whole family would play cards into the evening hours.

As the girls matured and entered high school Betty started drinking which led to Jay leaving Betty in 1975 and Patti and Lynda went to live with Jay. Jay and Betty divorced soon after and Susan came to live with Jay and her sisters.

Patti and Lynda left for college and Jay returned to attending church and Sunday school where he met Imogene and they starting dating. Soon after they were engaged and married in 1980. As each daughter got married and the grandkids started arriving, Jay decided he had enough of Harris and retired from Harris and soon Imogene followed suit.

Jay bought a new 24 ft boat and named it the Genie in honor of Imogene. That boat hosted many Summer trips to the Florida Keys for fishing and lobstering. Many times, Jay’s brother Raymond, his wife Martha and son Rick would join in on the fun. Those were the days.

After retirement from Harris, Jay and Imogene enjoyed traveling in their RV to many areas of the US and Canada. On these journeys they made many friends and always found a place to worship God. Sometimes the grandchildren traveled with them.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Justapreacher Ministries. “Justapreacher Ministries is a not-for-profit ministry supported primarily by believers who recognize that the church needs to return to her first love - Jesus Christ - in these last days”. Please see http://www.justapreacherministries.com/ for more information. If you would like to donate to the ministry, you can send your tax-deductible donation to: Justapreacher Ministries P.O. Box 372236 Satellite Beach, FL 32937-0236