Harlan Bayless Benton

years preceded him in death in June 2019. Harlan is survived by four children and many grand

and great-grandchildren.

Harlan and Neva were married in 1952. Harlan dearly loved his wife and spent his adult life

taking care of her and their four children. He worked hard every day to take care of his family.

Harlan was famous in the family for his memory, and for his ability to entertain us with stories

about growing up on a farm. He was an extraordinary raconteur. Whatever he was doing, he

would share stories about some past adventure that fit the moment.

Harlan had a deep love of automobiles, especially trucks. While living in Enid, Oklahoma, he

used his truck to haul milk from local dairy farmers to the Gold Spot Dairy. He said his favorite

truck ever was a 1954 GMC 3500. It was Teal Blue with a Polar White cab, had wrap around

windows and a chrome grill. One story he would tell is about a dog at one particular dairy farm

that kept peeing on his tires. So, dad electrified the rims in a way that the dog would get a little

shock the next time he dared disgrace his truck. It worked.

We cannot calculate the number of hours he spent working on his vehicles, whether they were

his own, his children’s, or other people’s. He was the consummate mechanic. Growing up, he

had an all-consuming desire to know how everything worked, and how to fix things. Beginning at

the ripe age of 10, he put together the engine on his father’s Model A. While working for RCA, he

diagnosed and fixed a magnetic coupling problem for a new communication system, allowing a

major nationwide network rollout to occur on schedule. If something broke, he could fix it. His

garage was full of tools and materials to build things with. Harlan loved to construct things, and

we witnessed many “from scratch” builds throughout our years with him.

Harlan and Neva were foster parents for Sacramento County for 35 years, and fostered over 70

children. He was also the sound man for his church. Besides installing and running the sound

system, he made recordings of the services for people who could not attend in person.

The family would like to thank the staff at Oakmont Fair Oaks for the loving care they provided

to Harlan during his last days. It is an especially difficult time to provide care to the residents,

but they continued to provide dad with the love, care and concern that he so definitely deserved.

Harlan will be greatly missed. We will remember him as a hard-working man, who kept family

and God first in his life, and provided humor and love to his family and friends.

Due to the current COVID protocols for Sac/ Placer/ El Dorado county, guests must wear protective masks at all times while inside the funeral home facility and practice the recommended six foot social distancing.