Albert Jake Lebsack

94, of Englewood passed away at the Allison Care Center in Lakewood, Colorado. He had only been a resident there for two weeks. He is survived by devoted Son and wife David E. and Sarah Lebsack 6 grandchildren and 10 great grand children and his sister, Esther Norris and husband Sam of Warren, Indiana. Visitation Friday, January 11, 4-7 p.m. at Olinger Crown Hill 29th & Wadsworth Funeral Service Saturday at 10:00 am. Englewood First Presbyterian Church 3500 S. Logan St. Englewood.

Albert Jake Lebsack

“Al” “Granpa” “Papa” “Bato”

Beloved Husband-Father-Grandfather-Great Grandfather-Hero-Neighbor and Friend

Age 94

October 22, 1918-January 2, 2013

Albert Jake Lebsack was born in Loveland, Colorado on October 22, 1918. He was born at home to Jacob and Marie Lebsack weighing in at 14 pounds. His family were Germans from Russia and they had settled in the Loveland, Colorado area after emigrating from Frank, Russia to the United States. They wanted to come to the United States seeking a better life and a right to pursue happiness for their children which included personal and religious freedoms. Albert was baptized and confirmed in the First German Congregational Church Loveland, Colorado.

In November of 1933, when Al was around 15 years old his 19 year old brother, Reuben was killed in an accident. This impacted Al in a deep way; it “set him back.” Al had two older sisters Mollie Bernhardt and Marie Lenhardt, and as his younger sister Esther states today, Molly and Marie are what “kept him together.” Even in his final year of life Al with a twinge of sadness said he often wondered what his life would have been like if his older brother had lived.

The year following Reuben’s death a younger sister, Esther was born. In Esther’s words, Al always thought of her as a nuisance and he always called her “kid.”

During his late teens and as a young man Al had several different paying jobs all of which would be considered good jobs at least for the times. He worked at the Great Western Sugar Company, several years for the Colorado & Southern Railroad and also the Kuner-Empson Cannery.

Al met his future bride, Viola “Vi” Hoff at the First Congregational Church in Loveland, Colorado. His little sister Esther tells how she really was a “nuisance” during Al’s courtship with Vi. She says she used to hide in the back seat of the car before Al was going to pick up Vi and once Vi was in the car she would “pop up” in the back seat scaring them both half to death. But Al got smarter. He started checking the backseat before going to pick up his beau, but Esther never missed the opportunity to “get one past him.” She was the tag along little sister named “kid!”

But finally Al’s beau became his bride and on February 26, 1939 they were joined in marriage in the church where they had met. The newlyweds moved to Denver, Colorado living in a home on South Acoma and from then on younger sister Esther’s vacations were spent visiting Vi and Al. Al was always there for his sister Esther and Vi helped Esther move through the teen years and beyond. Throughout the years, Al and Vi visited her at every house and place she moved to. In Esther’s words, she says the names Vi and Al just seemed to go together as was true of their whole life. They treated Esther as if she was their own child. In later years after Esther’s divorce Al was like a dad for her sons Erin and Jeri. Sadly Esther’s son, Al’s nephew Erin passed away on January 3, 2013 at the age of 51 not 13 hours after Al’s death. Only God knows why.

Al went to work for the Gates Rubber Company in 1939 and eventually they settled in a home they built on the 4600 block of South Pennsylvania Street in Englewood, Colorado. In 1948 Vi and Al became lifetime members of the First Presbyterian Church of Englewood, Colorado. Al served as an Elder and a Deacon in the church and he helped build the first Sanctuary of the church. The couple raised two sons, Dennis Albert Lebsack, who pre-deceased his parents on February 7, 2001 and David Eugene Lebsack, who resides in Lakewood, Colorado.

Borrowing words from Vi’s memorial obituary-- because in this case if you say some things about one of them you have to say the same thing about both of them—so as stated in Vi’s obituary—‘Vi and Al were always a handsome couple. Al - ever the Gentleman, and Vi his "Lady" - always impeccably dressed and although unspoken, they both expected manners to accompany everyone whether in their home, at work, the athletic field, shopping, at church or out and about.’

Vi’s obituary goes on to say, ‘as the sons grew up, went off to college married and started their families she and Al embraced dearly, celebrated and rejoiced the arrival of each and every grandchild and as time passed the great grandchildren as well. They loved babies and being grandparents. In fact “Granpa” got his nickname Bato from his youngest grandson, Shaun. When Shaun was a little guy he couldn’t say, “Grandpa,” he could only say Ba (as in bath) toe. No one really thought much about it, but not too long after Shaun started calling Ba toe by that name, Granpa and Grammie started signing their cards and such with love from “Grammie and Bato” and that nick name stuck for the rest of his life. But Vi and Al's circle was larger than that. Vi and Al were known throughout their entire lives to gather up, accumulate and keep track of loved ones, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, many, many neighbors and friends and friends of friends –whose numbers in total seem to be infinite!’ And so it was. And so it is.

Al lost his beloved bride of 73 years on April 13, 2012. As his sister Esther says you couldn’t say or see Al or Vi alone—the two were always Al and Vi or Vi and Al, the other’s name just had to follow whichever name was spoken first. Vi passed away in the same home she and Al had built and shared together for over half a century.

Al worked at the Gates Rubber Company for 38 years spending 35 of those years in management. During his tenure at Gates he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Credit Union, the Fire Brigade Club, and the National Management Association including serving on the Board. He retired from Gates in 1977.

Following his retirement in 1977 he worked several years each in construction and for Seniors, Inc. He worked seven years as a chauffeur for Colorado Limousine Service driving often for mortuaries. But not always! In the mid 1980’s he came home from chauffeuring one night with a program autographed by Michael Jackson himself per Al’s request following Mr. Jackson’s concert at McNichols (Big Mac) Arena. He then proceeded to present the one program and autograph to his two start stuck granddaughters, Barb and Tara. He said he didn’t quite have enough nerve to bother Mr. Jackson for two autographs so the girls had to share. Even so they both were quite thrilled over his chauffeur driving that night for sure!

He also drove other fairly well known public figures from time to time. One never knew what public figure name he might just mention in passing only that he had chauffeured a time or two or more. Al was very discrete and protective of his clients’ privacy and even his family was not aware until years later of the public figures he had chauffeured around Denver.

Son David says that his Dad loved working in the yard keeping it in perfect shape – the lawn and flowers. He kept his lawn and flowers in tip top shape until he was nearly in his 90’s. He treated everyone who came to visit as if they were his family which was also true of Vi. They loved babies, grandkids and neighborhood children visiting. He and Vi always gave out great hugs along with cookies and candy and up until the later years Vi and Al cooked, baked, canned and froze most of their home made goodies. Al was known as the “cookie grandpa” on the block.

David states that his Dad was a great athlete playing fast pitch softball for 20 some years. David also recalls some thoughtful moments with his Dad. One vivid memory he has is when his Dad taught him how to tie his shoe laces. “Dad crossed the two laces and pulled them down.” He then said “now create a bow and bring the other lace through and pull.” ‘As Dad was pulling the laces (being the very strong man that he was) he pulled the laces so hard they snapped in two setting his hand on a course that ultimately connected with my mouth and jaw. What a shock to Dad and me both! We both laughed pretty hard and went on to the other shoe.’

Nearly every other Saturday during the summers as the boys were growing up Al and Vi would pack a lunch and take the boys up to the mountains for a picnic. As Son David recalls ‘Mom would see a really good spot to stop to have our picnic and she’d tell Dad to stop. He however would drive past what seemed like 25 more spots that Mom, Denny or I had seen and we each were pretty verbal in making suggestions where we thought good spots for a picnic were. But Dad kept driving and before we knew it all the good stopping spots seemed to be behind us, so Dad would turn the car around and drive back the same way we had come eventually picking one of the good spots previously suggested by one of us and then we would stop. This was frustrating for a kid but one can kind of see the fun in it now. David says, “Just being stubborn.”

Al and Vi took many many trips with their boys. David remembers the Great Salt Lake. They paddled around in the salt water, then Dad took David in and showered the salt water off, then he came out and took Denny in and showered the salt water off him too. As a kid, David always wondered how it felt for his Dad to have to take two showers for one dip in the salt water. Al never minded doing things more than once when it came to his Hun – nee as he called Vi, his boys and later on his grandkids.

David recalls trips to the Grand Canyon, the Four Corners area of Colorado, Mesa Verde, Yellowstone Park, Cave of the Winds, Red Wood Forest, South Dakota, summer trips to Estes Park just to name a few and there were so many more. He says his Dad was always playing baseball in the back yard with Denny and him. He took David pheasant hunting, first with his sling shot, then with the 410 shotgun. When David was 9, Dad let him shoot the 12 gauge which landed David fast and hard on his backside staring at the sky. He didn’t know what hit him. After that David decided he would just stick with the 410. Dad took the boys to Lakeside Amusement Park every year for the Gates Summer Fun Day.

Younger sister, Esther recalls several trips where Vi and Al came to visit her. Once, when she lived in Garden City, Kansas one Sunday morning she got up to read scripture in church and as she was just about to open her mouth to start speaking she is startled because out of the blue she sees Al and Vi sitting in one of the pews that had been behind her and they were looking all smug because I guess this time they got one past her! She couldn’t have been happier or more surprised or even think up a better surprise that that!

When she and Sam lived in Missouri, Al and Vi came to visit and they all planned a trip to see some shows in Branson. They did a great deal of food preparation as they were planning to have a picnic on the way. After making all the wonderful picnic and food preparations, they actually got in the car and began motoring their way to Branson. At about “picnic” time, they found the perfect spot to pull off the road to eat and have their picnic. They unloaded everything from the car, unpacked the food and commenced to have a picnic. However, in the fairly short time it took to do that and before they even barely managed to get a bite of food down, they were joined by an extremely large monstrous gathering of flies so many that within very short order they were quickly packing up all the wonderfully prepared food, got the car loaded including themselves and without wasting another minute they got back on the road continuing toward Branson their destination. No picnic that day! Vi Lebsack didn’t take kindly to flies having the nerve to come to her picnics and who could blame her!

Flies were forgotten once they arrived in Branson because they hit the “Baldnobbers Jamboree Show.” (Well known because it was one of the very first family musical shows started in Branson. It began in 1959 and continues today –hillbilly music and “corny” hillbilly humor.) Esther said that she’d never seen Dad laugh so hard in her whole life and then the icing on the cake was that trip Dad actually got to meet Roy Clark, the guitarist from Hee Haw days. He got Roy’s autograph and had his picture taken with him. We remember Dad floating on air after that trip. One other time they took a trip to Holland, Michigan which is famous for its annual Tulip Festival and they visited the DeKlomp Wooden Shoe and Delft Factory, they came home with hand painted pottery and wooden shoes from that trip!

Al kept Santa Claus alive for many people but especially for both his boys most especially David and yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus. The year that David got his first really good bike-- which by the way he still has--on Christmas Eve the family returned home after driving around looking at Christmas lights. Mom, Denny and David were bringing in everything from the car while Dad went to open the front door. To this day David doesn’t know how but by the time David, Denny and their Mom got inside the house the cookies and milk had evaporated into thin air and the very first thing David saw as he was coming in the door was a brand spanking new bike sitting in front of the couch. Even more puzzling to David was if that bike had been hidden in the house somewhere (which of course it hadn’t) but if it had, he couldn’t even imagine where --because every day for weeks he’d gone snooping through the house trying to find out what he was getting for Christmas.

Al and Vi both now leave behind their son and daughter-in-law David and Sarah (Cline) Lebsack - Lakewood, Colorado; daughter-in-law Mary (Lebsack) Leffler - San Diego, California: six grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren; Denise Lebsack and children Annamarie and EJ Wiksten - San Diego, California; Devin and Leah Lebsack and children Lexi Lebsack, Cassandra and William Crawford - Las Vegas, Nevada; Dan and Suzanne Lebsack and twins Emily and Evan Lebsack - Reno, Nevada; Tara Cline and children Tanner Cline, Trenten and Tatum Ebert - Arvada, Colorado; Barbara and Robert Mountain - Arvada, Colorado; Shaun and Ashley Lebsack - Lakewood, Colorado; Al’s sister and husband Esther and Sam Norris – Warren, Indiana; Vi’s brother Wilbur Hoff – Lakewood, Colorado.

Al and Vi also leave behind their Adopted Family through Jesus and close friends: Kevin and Luz Centola and children Angela, Coleman, Theresa and Monica Centola.

Al was pre-deceased by many loved ones including Vi and their eldest son, Dennis; his parents, Jacob and Marie Lebsack; his older sisters Molly Bernhardt and Marie Lenhardt; his older brother Reuben. As is true with people who live long lives, over the years Al and Vi lost many loved ones, siblings, nieces, nephews, family and friends. But in the true fashion of the circle of life Al and Vi loved many and many loved them and countless lives were touched by, even if it was only briefly, the love Vi and Al had first for the Good Lord above and secondly for each other. They shall remain impeccably dressed alive, young and vibrant in the hearts and minds of all those who knew them.

Visitation is 4-7 p.m. Friday January 11, 2013 at Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary and Cemetery, 7777 West 29th Ave. Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Funeral Services are 10 a.m. Saturday January 12, 2013 at First Presbyterian Church of Englewood Colorado, 3500 South Logan, Englewood, Colorado.

Following conclusion of funeral services, Al—Dad, Granpa, Papa, Bato-- will be carried with honor to his final resting place in Olinger Crown Hill Cemetery, Wheat Ridge, Colorado where he will be laid to rest by his six grandchildren Denise, Devin, Dan, Tara, Barbara and Shaun. Tanner Cline will be stepping in for Dan Lebsack and Barb’s husband Rob will step in for Barb.