Bernard Foley

Stub was born in Tonganoxie, Kansas on August 25, 1915 and grew up on a farm. He was one of eight children; he has three brothers and four sisters. He attended Tonganoxie Grade School and Tonganoxie High School and was active in Future Farmers of America. After graduating from high school, Stub worked on a farm owned by his family and during the Depression entered the Civilian Conservation Corp to help support his family. The Civilian Conservation Corp would send $25 a month home to his parents and Stub was given $5 per month.

Stub has always been interested in music. When he was 12 years old he traded a dog for a car. When the owner delivered the car to Stub he had taken his fiddle out of the back seat of the car and had it with him. Stub picked up the fiddle and within a couple of hours was able to play a few songs by ear. So, he asked the owner if he would trade the fiddle for the car. Before the evening was over, the owner of the car went home with not only the dog but his car as well, and Stub had the fiddle. Within, a few months, Stub was playing for local dances. He won a fiddle contest and went on to play on the radio along with his two brothers. Until recently he played with Country Western Band in Northglenn.

Stub owned two trucks – a stock truck and a dump truck – and made his living by doing paving and hauling stock to the stockyards in Kansas City. Three days after Pearl Harbor was bombed, on December 10, 1941, Stub enlisted in the Army and was sent overseas to New Guinea and later to the Philippine Islands. He left the Army as a Master Sergeant.

After returning to Kansas, he met Kitty in January 1946 and they were married in October of that same year. After a couple of years, they bought a farm outside of Leavenworth, Kansas. Stub not only farmed, but also worked in Leavenworth as a mechanic at the Cadillac dealership.

Stub and Kitty came to Colorado on vacation to visit their best friends in July 1958, and before going back to Kansas they had bought a home and Stub had a job as a mechanic for Chrysler dealership in Boulder. They went back to Kansas, loaded up their household goods and family, and within two weeks had moved to Colorado.

Stub and Kitty lived in Northglenn, Colorado. They have eight children, twenty grand children, forty three great grandchildren, and four great-great grandchildren. The greatest tragedy in Stub’s life was losing his grandson, Matthew, in 1996 and his beloved Kitty in 2001.