Charles Lawrence Kilgore

Chuck was born August 30th,1951 in Detroit Michigan while his father was serving in the Navy at Great Lakes. Shortly after his birth his parents Charles and Alice moved the family back to Orlando, Florida where his Grandpa Forest and Uncle Forest lived. Through his grandfather's and uncle's work with the city the Kilgore family name became so prominent the city decided to name Kilgore Rd in Windermere after the family. With Grandpa Forest living off pocket lake it gave them plenty of time to fish and that is where Chuck's love of fishing began. He also grew a love for hunting because he and his father built a cabin in the heart of Ocala's National Forest Umatilla Florida. Chuck attended Audubon Elementary then went on to Glenridge Middle, and finished his grade school at Colonial High. While in high school he became a member of the dive team and his senior year he was honored to attend the Florida boys state in Tallahassee with the American legion and went on to graduate class of 1969. After high school Chuck went to earn his A.A degree at Seminole Jr College, where he also became a lifeguard teaching life saving skills classes. He then traveled north to Gainesville, FL to attend the University of Florida, where the love of the Florida Gators Football began.

Once Coming back to Orlando Chuck began working at palmer electric as a journeyman. This helped support his new found love of racing cars. He had a 1973 Green Nova he called "Slova" that he raced the division 2 sportsman series, among many others from Bithlo to the gator nationals. During this time chuck was active helping his dad and mom build their vacation house in Pine Island, which soon became their permanent retirement home. His next journey in life came when he entered the boating world by purchasing a business called A&D custom canvas. Through friends he met Jeanne and always had his mind on her but it wouldn't be until nearly a year later at the Central Florida Boat show did they finally start dating. Shortly after on September 28th,1985 Chuck and Jeanne where married. They enjoyed bowling with their friends both were apart of the mixed league at Aloma lanes and Chuck was also a very active player with the colonial all men's league. As well as bowling they had season tickets to watch the Florida Gators play football and went to every game they could. One of the favorite match ups was the Florida v.s. Georgia game where they met wonderful lifetime friends and made many memories.

On February 13th,1986 Chuck and Jeanne welcomed their only child Jennifer Marie Kilgore. They had her on the boat and going to the gator games as early as 9 days old. They traveled from Silver Glenn to the Bahamas on their boat named Rag Top. When Jenny turned 5 she became very interested in horses which grew into a love for riding and became a major part of their lives. Watching her ride and compete all over the south east with her horse Max became one of Chucks biggest pride and joys. Chuck's latest love went back to his roots of racing and classic cars. He found an old 79 Chevy Monza spyder that he did a complete restoration on with the help of many friends turned it into a beautiful street rod. Jeanne got a little jealous and needed on of her own so Chuck gathered the troops and built her a stunning 69 Chevelle SS Convertible. They joined a car club called the Lug Nutz and travelled with them showing off their hot rods. He also enjoyed "delegating authority" with his buddy's race teams Seven angels racing and gilmore's racing. He bragged all the time about them both and absolutely loved being a part of their crew. Chuck and Jeanne decided to purchase a RV to take with them on these trips. They spent time at many Nascar races, going to the gator nationals, Tybee Island Georgia, went up to the Kentucky derby one of Jeanne's long time wishes, and many many more adventures.

During their Semi-retirement they sold the house in Oviedo and moved to Merritt island to be closer to Jenny, Grady and the grandkids Jacob, Tanner and Makenzie. They found a house right on the Sykes Creek River where Chuck worked hard with old and new friends building a dock, putting pavers down making it beautiful for them to enjoy. Chuck enjoyed his time fishing on the dock especially when his "Tanner man" came to visit and fish with him. On Sunday August 13th,2017 Chuck, Grady, Jenny, Tanner, and Jacob took the Rag Top III out for what soon would be Chuck's final cruise as captain on the water. Remembering him is the easy part because we all will do it everyday, missing him is the heartache that wont go away.