For those of you who have not heard, I announce with a heavy heart that our dear ole father, husband to two wonderful women in his life, uncle, in law, and friend to many, Chester Lynn Holstein Jr passed away peacefully in the presence of family and friends on February 18, 2020 at the age of 83. He is survived by his wonderful wife Rosie, two sons Daniel and Justin, nieces and nephews, in-laws, and friends.
He was a great father to my brother and I, and a loving husband to two wonderful women, our mother Anne and our stepmother Rosie.
My dad was born in a very poor part of Gilmer County, in the town of Hardman, West Virginia March 25, 1936 as the second son of teachers Chester Lynn Holstein Sr and Edith “Beall” Holstein. He spent most of his young life in Gilmer County in the towns of Tanner and Glenville West Virginia hunting squirrels, playing in the creeks, and hiking the hills until around 1949 when his family decided to head west, giving my dad the chance he dreamed of as a young child to be a cowboy. He was able to fulfill that dream to some degree by working on a ranch in Wyoming when he was just 13 or 14. After the Holstein family’s short stay in Wyoming the family moved to Golden Colorado where he would meet his first wife Anne “Cherry” Holstein at Golden High School. My dad would soon leave high school early at 17 years of age in July 1953 to join the Marines and leave his love, our mother behind until his return in 1956 when they reunited and later married in September of 1957.
He joined the US Marine Corps July 20, 1953 a mere 7 days before the Korean War ended. He served his basic training in Camp Pendleton California, and 6 months or so later was sent to Korea for his tour of duty as a Morse Code radio operator and infantryman on the 38th parallel. Although he never saw any action as he arrived there after the cease fire agreement, some of his best stories came from his time in Korea where he also served with his brother William Franklin DeWitt Holstein or Billy as he often referred to him, and from what I understand the two of them spent plenty of time figuring out how to get into trouble and not get caught. I think most of the time they succeeded. He was, however, very proud of his service in the Marines and to his country.
Upon his return home and marriage to our mother Anne, they decided a move to California would be a good change of pace in their lives where he would go to College at Cal Poly in Pomona on the GI bill, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Animal Husbandry. It was there in California where he got his second chance to cowboy around a little bit as he obtained a job on an Arabian horse ranch where he learned to become a pretty good trick roper and join Monty Montana’s Buffalo Bills Wild West Show for a short period. After a couple more years in California he and our mother Anne decided to come back to Colorado. They moved to Las Animas Colorado where my dad would work for FHA and operate a small farm, and soon adopt me Justin, and almost a year later my brother Daniel. The family stayed on that ranch until about 1968 when we moved to Garden City Kansas for a couple years, then to Baily Colorado for about a year, and then finally return with the family to Golden Colorado for the remaining 50 years of his life.
In the early 70’s our dad was heavily involved in the bluegrass and folk scene in the Denver Rocky Mountain area. He took my brother and I to our first big show in 1972 to see the Earl Scruggs Review and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, where he promptly slugged an audience member for grabbing Earl Scruggs’ banjo, his music hero. Long story short he and Earl Scruggs became friends for many years after that. He became tight with very good local bluegrass musician’s, EP Davis and Clarke Wright among many others, and my brother and I saw more live country, folk, and bluegrass music before we were 10 years old than most people would ever see in a lifetime. My brother and I blame him for our love and addiction to music.
Our family grew up in the house on Easley Road with our loving mother Anne until her passing in September 1995, and our dad stayed in until his passing this year. Sometime in 1996 our father took a trip to northern Mexico, Chihuahua specifically where he would return for several visits in the next 4 months or so. We finally pried a bit and asked him what was so important in Mexico. With a sheepish grin he pulled photos of Rosa Linda Cuevas out of his kitchen drawer and told us he was in love and was going to marry her. It was later that year they married in a nice ceremony at our house on the lawn on a warm summer’s day, under the maple and mulberry trees. For the next 23 plus years Rosie and our father would live a happy loving marriage. Our father was also welcomed into Rosie’s family with love. He spent a lot of time in Mexico helping out her family and getting to know them. I know our father was grateful for Rosie’s love and kindness and that of her family’s as well. Rosie was also grateful for his love to her and her family. My brother and I are also grateful to Rosie as she made it possible for our father to live happily for the remaining 23 years of his life.
Our dad was also a friend to many, a humanitarian, a joker, and a terrific storyteller. If we could all weave a yarn like him the world would be a much better place.
Our dad firmly believed in humanitarianism and honesty above all other things. He did not care where you were from, how you got here, what you looked like, but only that your humanity, wellbeing, and dignity was more important than any social norm or imaginary line in the sand. He could not fathom cruelty of any kind toward anything or anyone. He believed firmly that every American had not only a duty but an obligation to help take care of the weakest, the poorest, the least educated, the forgotten among us, and he believed it should be done collectively by all Americans, because he believed a country that casts its weak aside is a country that is only as strong as its weakest member. His only real true criteria for friendship was that you have a heart and try to put aside your own selfish needs or material desires when it mattered most.
He was also the most well-read man of historical and political literature I ever knew. He probably read a couple thousand books in his lifetime. It was rare to see him read a book of fiction unless there was cultural, historical, or real political context to it. He taught me a lot about history and politics. He was also a voracious reader of poetry as well and could recite verbatim poems he taught himself from the time he was a young boy. Robert Frost was one of his favorites among many others. He loved Bluegrass music, Mexican music, the English and Spanish languages alike.
He spent most of his adult life helping our mother to raise us boys and did that as an over-the-road independent truck driver for most of his career, from which also came many wonderful stories. He would say, “you learn a lot about a country when you’ve put well over 2 million miles on the roads across this country”. He loved being a truck driver. Sitting stationary in an office or bumbling about town
in a box truck would have never worked for him. The long road was an everyday adventure for him and a new discovery to be made, a new person to meet, and a new challenge to overcome.
My dad grew up being a hunter mostly as a means of survival as his family was extremely poor in WV. As he got older and into his late 30’s he developed a much deeper reverence for all life in general and gave up hunting. He did not have a moral dilemma about hunting in general, but for him personally he just didn’t like taking the lives of things anymore and instead chose to admire them from afar and be amazed by their natural beauty right down to the squirrels and birds he fed a giant glob of crunchy peanut butter to every day outside his living room window. It was just another side of the deep humanitarianism and love of the natural world he developed over time. You could say he became a big ole softy in the later 45 years of his life.
As I mentioned earlier our dad was fortunate enough to have two wonder women in his life, our mother Anne who he met as Anne Cherry in or around 1951 I believe, and later married in 1957 approximately 1 year after arriving home from Korea. They were married for 38 mostly wonderful years as no marriage goes without its ups and downs until our dear mothers passing in 1995 at the young age of 58. I had always wondered what attracted my mother to my dad as they seemed opposites in many ways, but when it became clear my mother wasn’t going to be with us much longer, I asked her what it was she loved about him. She simply said, our dad was always nice to her, and I think Rosie would say the same today about him. Not more than a year or so after our mothers passing my dad made a trip to Mexico where he would meet the second love of his life Rosa Linda Cuevas. I believe it was instant love. They got married I believe about 6 months later in the US in a small pleasant ceremony at our house and shared 23 loving years together until his passing with Rosie by his side, with loving care for as many minutes and as many days as they could manage together until the very end. Without Rosie our dad would not have lived as long as he did. She made it possible for him to give us this much time in his life and we truly love and thank her for that. He had a pretty good run I’d say and left behind a kind loving legacy that we can all be proud of and try to emulate ourselves.
We will miss him terribly, but carry his guidance, wisdom, sense of humor, and love with us until we meet again someday. He truly was a blessing in our lives, and Rosie and her family’s lives, and always will be.
Peace to our dear ole dad and husband.
We love you.
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