Charles H Cruse

He was born to Lloyd William Cruse and Mary Elizabeth Hagan on July 22, 1933. His childhood was spent in the downtown area of Grand Junction, where he lived off and on with his mother, Mary Elizabeth and Granddad, C. C. (Christopher Columbus) Hagan after his mother and father, Lloyd William, divorced in 1935.

During his childhood, he loved to raise pigeons. He swept floors at Burkey Lumber and Mesa Feed and Seed, earning building materials for cages and bird seeds to feed them.

He attended school through the 8th grade attending both Emerson Elementary and Grand Junction Junior High School. He joined the Navy at age 18 and right after completing boot camp and before deploying to Korea, married Mary Ellen Drake on December 31, 1951.

During his time in the Navy, he served aboard an LST and Destroyer where he sustained loss of his hearing in one ear due to the concussion from a gun going off right next to him and then another incident when a storm wave hit and threw him into the guns injuring his back and causing the loss of hearing in his other ear.

He had planned to stay in the Navy but decided to accept an honorable discharge after sustaining his injuries in 1953. He then went on to over the road trucking for the next 40 years from which he retired at age 65.

He is preceded in death by his beloved wife of 67 years Mary Ellen Cruse, a brother Lloyd Christopher Cruse and his half siblings, Donald Cruse and Loydene Wiseman.

He is survived by his three children, Patricia E. Salcido, Lloyd H. Cruse and Melody A. Vaughn, all of Grand Junction including 6 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren, 9 great, great grandchildren, and 2 half siblings, Barbara Wilson and Eileen Pentico.