LeRoy Max (Lee) Preble died June 7, 2021 at his home in Amarillo, Texas. He was born March 27, 1933 to Winfield V. Preble and Josephine Levendofsky Preble in Denver, Colorado, where he grew up. From an early age, he spent summers on his mother's sisters' farms around Belleville in north-central Kansas because his mother had to work outside the home and because of the polio epidemic in Denver. (His older brother, Theron, died of polio at the age of 10 when LeRoy was 2 and their sister, Wanda, was 15.)
In 1950 LeRoy enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean conflict on the hospital ship U.S.S. Haven. After the Navy, he became a welder at Midwest Steel and Iron, Denver, until 1967. In 1967 he became a sheet metal worker running the building and remodeling of gas stations throughout much of the U.S. In 1973 he and his wife, Sandra, moved to Amarillo, Texas, where he worked as a commercial journeyman carpenter until retiring in 1994.
Though LeRoy very much wanted to live to his and Sandra's 50th wedding anniversary June 12, 2021, he passed away just 5 days before that.
Survivors are wife, Sandra; children from a previous marriage, Jennifer Preble and Gregory Preble; granddaughter, Melissa Preble (husband, Dan Telisky); and great-grandchildren, Gina and Blaise Telisky.
Also surviving are his niece, Sandra Korfhage, and nephew, Randall Korfhage, and Randall's sons, Kyle and Cody (wife Ashley) and their daughter, Brooklyn.
Lee was friendly with everyone. He would strike up a conversation with anybody, especially older people, as he thought they were often ignored; children seemed to be drawn to him. His favorite TV show was The Price is Right - because he liked seeing people happy. Especially in later years, he disliked watching shows with violence - "There's too much of that in the real world."
His mother always told him, "Don't drink liquor or smoke," so he seldom drank. He did try smoking once, then wondered how people got any work done with a cigarette in their hand. It got in his way. Never tried again.
He worked hard in his professions and always tried to do his best. The foreman on an Amarillo construction site called him his "ace in the hole" because he could come up with a solution to any construction problem.
He was mostly a neat person - picked up after himself and didn't leave a mess behind for his wife to clean up.
Lee had a good sense of humor and often came up with little quips to make people laugh.
He was kind and patient, and most of all, he was a good man.
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