Mr. Frank George Lux

Eulogy (given by Duane Lux)!

Hello, I'm Duane, one of Frank’s sons; I would first like to thank everyone for coming and celebrating my dad’s life. Just take a look around and you can see how many lives my dad touched. My brother told me that my dad didn’t want anybody to speak about him at his service because he didn’t want his life to be summed up in 15 minutes. For the friends that knew my dad, he was a very modest person. If I had fifteen hours or fifteen days I don’t think I could sum up my dad’s life. So Frank, I’m going to have to override you on this one. I’ll just share some of my favorite memories that I have of my dad.

My Dad was a beloved husband, father; grandfather, brother, uncle, and mentor. He also was a baseball coach, football coach and a United States Marine. My dad taught me integrity, honesty, responsibility and respect for others.

My dad was raised dirt poor as the saying goes, but managed to start and own his own business and have a very successful career providing for himself and his family. He was brought up in a time where every door was opened for a lady and every deal or contract was signed with a handshake. I am 48 years old and have never seen my dad shed a tear. He was brought up hard, and was raised in a time where a man was a man. My dad was the hardest working man that I have ever known. Years ago at my Uncle Denny’s funeral my cousin Mike Rebman was speaking about his dad, and what he said really hit me, I can’t remember verbatim, so I apologize Mike but it went something like this, “When I got out of school and finally hit the work force I looked around and saw that there were people actually paying plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters and other trades for the same work that my dad did himself.” He could do it all. Like your dad Mike, and his generation, my dad and your dad were true jack of all trades and true craftsmen. They were truly American heroes. My dad just loved everything that America could offer. He also loved to listen to talk radio. He loved Rush Limbaugh and any other person who loved to talk about how great this country is. Also, my dad was the most honest man I have ever known. He didn’t even tell whopping fish stories. And everyone that has hunted or fished with me knows that I don’t tell whoppers either. Well, maybe I’ve told a couple of whoppers in my time. You knew that every story that my dad told was always true.

My dad was a very big part of La Mirada Little League Baseball. During baseball season our Saturdays were spent almost all day at Van Damn Baseball Field in La Mirada. My dad coached me and my brothers, and my mom would work the snack shack. There was nothing more fun for me and my friends than to get a chance to chase and fight over a foul ball to get a token for a free snow cone.

When the last ball was pitched on that Saturday, it was time to close up the snack shack, pick up the bases and head to Straw Hat Pizza. This is where the die hard baseball families would consume unlimited pitchers of beer and bottles of wine. At the end of the evening, there were always these two coaches, I can’t remember their names, but after consuming enough alcohol they would perform the baseball skit from Abbott and Costello, “Who’s on first?” It always brought the house down. My dad just loved to hang out with other coach’s and talk about baseball.

While playing little league, the only baseball coaches that I ever had were my dad, who was the head coach, and John Pogue, who was my dad’s good friend, and assistant coach. They were a force to be reckoned with. If you were lucky enough to play on their team it was an honor. But not because they were good coaches, they were, but it was because they were good people. And we always had the best pool parties.

My dad was always up for a challenge. This is one of my favorite memories that I have playing baseball. I can still remember the day when my dad came home with the new roster of our baseball team. He had drafted a girl on our team. She was one of the first girls to play in little league baseball in the country. It was even a big story in our local newspaper. Her name was Gina Roblero. Her parents were immigrants from Mexico and all she wanted to do was play baseball. My dad took her under his wing like she was his own daughter. My dad and John Pogue taught every kid on that team to be respectful toward her and understand that she just wanted to play baseball. Every kid on that team loved playing baseball with that girl. She was one of the guys. That year we made it all the way to the championship game. I remember after the game her parents were in tears and came up to my dad and thanked him for giving her a chance and told him that she loved playing for him. She went on to become an exceptional baseball player. Every time she ran into my dad at the field she would always thank him for teaching her the game of baseball. My dad made a lasting impression on so many people.

Through out my high school years of playing football and baseball at La Mirada High School, I can’t remember a single time when I looked up in the stands or on the sidelines and didn’t see my mom and dad sitting there. Whatever city we were playing in, they were always there at every game. My dad also spent countless hours on the weekends painting dugouts, bleachers and backstops at our high school free of charge.

My dad was never one to sit at home. My parents traveled many, many miles in their motor home visiting this great country of ours. Besides the good times spending endless hours and miles on the road with my mom, some of my dad’s other favorite times were spent fishing with friends and family. Our family spent countless days traveling and on camping trips. I think my dad must have heard the cliché, “Are we their yet?” over five thousand times. And we always got the same answer. “We’ll get there when we get there. Don’t ask me again.”…. And we’d still ask him again. We were thrown in our four star camper and eventually in the motor home on a monthly basis. Now, I know that my parents had only 5 kids, but for some reason we always had at least 7 or 8 kids on our vacation trips. I never had to ask my parents if one of my friends could go with us, they just showed up, got in the motor home and we took off. My parents always treated our friends like they were family. A couple of my best friends growing up were Brett Massingham and Bob Kaiser. I think Brett had more dinners at our house than he did at his own home. There was always an open chair at my mom’s dinner table. We had so many countless trips and adventures that were truly memorable. Our annual month long summer trip to Campland in San Diego with friends and family, fishing in Mission Bay, and having dinner at the docks at Point Loma, as well as our annual camping and motor cycle riding trip to Calico Ghost Town. We also went on an annual trip to Lake Mojave over Thanksgiving and numerous water ski trips to Lake Elsinore. My brothers, friends and I rode in the back of my dad’s work truck covering ourselves with drop cloths to keep warm at 5:00 o’clock in the morning. Launching the boat at 7:00 o’clock, my dad would say, “OK, who’s first?” Then he would get pissed off because no one wanted to get in the water because it was freezing cold. He would just crack a beer and start fishing.

We did many, many backpacking trips in the High Sierras, Mount Baldy, San Gorgonio and one of my favorites, hiking the John Muir trail with my dad. We went on camping trips in the Sequoias and hundreds of motorcycle riding trips. More fishing trips than I can remember, especially the annual Mammoth fishing trip and all the numerous tuna fishing trips that were spent with my dad, my brothers, my uncles and cousins and many, many friends. My parents opened up their home to every one of my brothers and sister’s friends. The Lux household was constantly filled with football players, baseball players, dirt bike riders; fishing buddies, and my favorite, the cheer leaders, and an endless supply of friends and relatives. Pool parties were the norm at my parent’s house. Summer, winter and fall, it didn’t matter what time of year. There was always some event going on at the Lux household. And speaking of the pool, my friends and I would finally get a boat load of girls over on a weekend to go swimming and have a Jacuzzi party, and that was the day that my dad would pick to clean the tiles in the pool. He’d have his mask on and go around cleaning tiles. My friends and I are like, “come on Frank, what the H?” And the girls would just say how cute my dad was. He was quite a character.

He would often barge into my bedroom while my friends and I were jamming to Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith or the Doors and yell, “Turn that damn hippie music down.” Those are not the exact words he used, which included some profanity, but I’m in a house of worship, so you get the message. However, when we went camping with friends and family, my mom and dad thought nothing of torturing us kids with endless hours of Neil Diamond. At the time it seemed like torture but today I’m actually a Neil Diamond fan.

My dad always owned a boat of some sorts his whole life. And every boat he owned had an eight track player in it. For as long as I can remember, my Dad only kept 3 eight tracks in the boat. When that boat fired up, the music fired up. If you were lucky enough to spend time in that boat, you had your choice of singers, Charlie Pride, Freddy Fender or Charlie Rich. Freddy Fender being the number 1 pick the majority of the time. Especially if the fish were not biting, I kid you not, that tape got the fish biting every time. Freddy could really bring them up! And that tape was played all day long. I think me and my friends were the only 15 year old California kids alive that loved the music of Freddy Fender. And my friends still do.

My dad had quite a life and most of it spent with my mom. My mom and dad were married for fifty four years. That is quite an accomplishment. When you take the vow of till death do us part, that is exactly what their lives were together. Through the good times and bad, my mom was right by my dad’s side taking care of him day and night for the last several months. What a true example of love and devotion.

So this tells a fragment of what a great man Frank Lux really was and just how many lives he touched. The best thing is that most of you here at this celebration got to share it with him.

Finally, I know that when I have attended services, I’ve kind of felt guilty to laugh or ham it up with friends and family that I haven’t seen in a long time. What my dad told me he didn’t want was for anyone to be moping around at his celebration. I will truly miss my dad. We are all sad that my dad is gone, but he really did live a wonderful life. So let’s drink up some suds and eat some good food and celebrate the life that Frank Lux fully lived.