Lavan O. Gowdy

Lavan Owen "L.O." Gowdy, 88, of Amarillo died on Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Funeral service will be at 2:00 pm, Friday, July 8, 2016 at LaGrone Blackburn Shaw Coulter Road Chapel with Chief Chaplain Chris Kutin, officiating. Burial will follow at Memory Gardens with military honors. Arrangements by LaGrone Blackburn Shaw Funeral Directors, 8310 S Coulter Street.

Mr. Gowdy was born November 26, 1927, in Bristow, Oklahoma to Vernon and Virgie Gowdy. In 1945, he married Geneva Naomi Langley. They lived in San Antonio while he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps following World War II. They also lived in Shafter, Calif. and Oklahoma City before moving to Amarillo in 1953.

Before his military service, he worked as a baker’s helper, a welder’s helper, a farm hand and a truck driver, hitchhiking between jobs and stopping at one point in California to carve his and “Nevy’s” initials in a tree. After his military service ended, he graduated at the top of his electronic repair class and was offered a job as the first TV repairman for Montgomery Ward in Oklahoma City. His career then took him to Amarillo where he repaired radios and televisions for Montgomery Ward and Fedway before opening Gowdy Mobile TV Service in 1956. He owned the business until retirement in 1998 when they moved to Bristow.

They returned to Amarillo in 2006 where he served tirelessly as his wife’s caregiver during her final year of life. After losing her in 2007, he drove himself to California to locate the tree that held their initials.

Mr. Gowdy was a Christian and is survived by his three sons, Ronald Gowdy, Kenneth Gowdy and wife Donna, Larry Gowdy and wife Darlene; two daughters, Tana Stephens and husband Randall, and Kathryn Mitchell and husband David; his grandchildren, Bray Gowdy, Kendra Eberle, Kevin Gowdy, Cecilia Wygant, Sonya Lasserre, Tonya Wright, Natasha Warren, Dustin Mitchell and Kallie Kosc; 17 great-grandchildren; 4 great-great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Virgie Jones and Karen Coleman. He was preceded in death by his parents, three sisters and two brothers.

Family will receive friends on Thursday, July 7, 2016 from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm at the funeral home.

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