Marvin Ottie Fuqua

Marvin Ottie Fuqua was born in the summer of 1932 in Bismarck, North Dakota into the uncertainty and hard times of the Great Depression. His family left the brutally hard winters of the Dakotas and moved to central Oklahoma. Toughness, determination, resiliency and faith got his family through those early drought stricken, dust bowl years of the thirties.

In the mid forties his dad moved the family to Loveland, Colorado where Marvin graduated from high school in 1950 and continued helping his dad custom combine following the wheat harvest from the Dakotas to Texas.

In 1957 he began ranching in North Park near Rand, Colorado. He married his wife, Beverly, in 1959. Together with the help their their son, Travis during his school years, Marvin and Bev ranched for fifty years. Marvin enjoyed getting a dry patch of meadow wet and seeing it raise hay, he loved his cows, horses, dogs and cats. He was "an old time rancher". He could keep his New Holland 1282 balers and 4020 John Deere tractors running through hay season with the help of old parts, baling wire and buckets of saved nut and bolts. He took great pride in putting up premium horse hay which he sold on the Front Range.

In 2009 health issues forced him to move to Wellington, Colorado in the winter but he always looked forward to returning to the ranch in May and staying into October. He could often be seen driving around the Rand area in his 1995 Dodge diesel pickup accompanied by his english setter, Bandit, checking ditches and hay meadows. Marvin loved the openness of the Park where he could hunt, fish, target shoot and watch the river bottom for deer, elk and moose from his living room windows.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Bev, his son Travis (Tricia), his grandson, Liam and his three sisters: Charlene Sackchewsky, Janice (Kenny) Schwindt and Sandi (art) Gies. He was predeceased by his parents, Martha and Ottie Fuqua and his two brothers: Wesley (Judy) and Richard (Pat).

A celebration of life will be held at the Allnutt Funeral Service Drake Road Chapel, 650 W. Drake Road at 10:30 am on Saturday, June 24. His ashes will be buried "before the snow flies" at the Rand Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Jackson County Senior Center, P.O. Box 861, Walden, CO or the Wellington Senior Center, P.O. Box 643, Wellington, CO.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.allnuttftcollins.com for the Fuqua family.