Obituary of Austin Nestor

I Dorsey Austin Nestor was born February 26, 1941 in Philippi, West Virginia. Austin lived in the Valley Furnace West Virginia area until 1945 when with grandparents J .D. and Dona Nestor Moved to Flagler Colorado. J .D., Dona and I spent the winter of 1945 with Andy Trahern and family in Flagler, Colorado. The following spring J .D., Dona and I went back to West Virginia and held an auction of the home, horses, cattle and about everything that could not be loaded onto their truck. J.D. moved my mom, Dad, Brother Charles and sisters Betty and Naomi to Colorado. We first moved back to Flagler Colorado, Then buying the Henry Fletcher ranch south of Hugo, Colorado. The Fletcher ranch was the home of world champion cowboy Kid Fletcher. Shortly thereafter, Grandpa and Grandma and I moved to the Cohen ranch southeast of Hugo. The reason I lived with my grandparents since I was nine months old was my mom and dad had their hands full with my brothers and sisters. We lived and worked the Cohen ranch about four years then moved to River Bend and worked the Poss ranch. We worked cattle and irrigated alfalfa hay for about two years. We then moved to the Forristall farm and ranch south of Hugo for two years. At the farm I learned to farm wheat as well as work cattle. Next, we moved to the Ed Burnett farm and ranch close to Karval, Colorado. I first went to school in Hugo then to Limon and down to Karval. We worked the Burnett ranch for a few years then we again moved, this time to Genoa, Colorado where my grandpa worked for Harry Hanson. During this time period I went to the Genoa school where I met Shirley Halverson. Shirley was the sister of Darlene Halverson who was dating my brother Charles. Charles and Darlene were introduced by my Aunt Evelyn Holsberry of Genoa. Evelyn was the telephone switchboard operator there. After spending a lot of time with Shirley Halverson we fell madly in LOVE. In February 1957 Shirley and I eloped to get married. As luck would have it a major blizzard came and we followed a snow plow all the way to Denver. We had no money and no food or gas. I had taken my grandpa’s 1949 Oldsmobile. At 4:00 in the morning I went to the Joe Cohen home to borrow some money. Joe gave me a ten dollar check. Finally, I found someone to cash the check and we got gas and candy to eat. We slept in the Denver City Park where the Denver Police made us leave because the park closed at 11 pm. We decided to drive north to Greeley where Violet and Ron Hunter were going to college. We stayed with them until relatives came and took us back home to Genoa. Guess who got into BIG trouble. Shirley and I finally got permission to get married. We got married September 28th, 1957 and lived in a very small house in Hugo, Colorado. I worked for an Olds Chevy dealer Jim Simmons and Bob Jensen. In February I joined the United States Marine Corp. After my birthday I was sent to San Diego California to boot camp. From boot camp the Corp sent me to Hawaii to the Konieoa Marine Corp air station. I had Shirley join me and we were stationed there two and a half years. During this time I was shipped everywhere in the Pacific area. I was in Japan, China, etc. In 1960 Shirley and I moved back to Colorado shortly thereafter we moved to Almagoda New Mexico. I built Longhorn trenchers and trailers. After six months there we moved to Colorado once again I then got a job in Limon, Colorado driving a truck for Texaco delivering gas to the surrounding areas. For the next few years we lived pretty well. I moved up to working inside the auto service and supply. We sold hardware, pottery, gifts, NAPA auto parts, Firestone tires and Texaco products. During this time Shirley worked there also. Shirley and I were making $75.00 a week together and later made & 125.00 a week, we had it made. We went on vacations to West Virginia, up to Canada and Niagara falls, Mom and Dad went with us. We then started wishing for a baby. I decided to quit Auto service and we moved to Hugo where I was the town Marshal. While living in our trailer south of mom and dads, Wayne was born. I went back to Auto service and Jason came along, this made us a family of four. Still working at Auto service we moved back to the ranch at River Bend where we had horses and cattle. I then got an idea to just up and sell everything and move back to West Virginia. We had a farm sale and paid off all of our debts. I had a real nice chevy pickup I traded to my dad for an international pickup that we took to West Virginia. When we got to my Uncle Denver’s in West Virginia I went to work cutting timber. We lived in Tacey for a while in a big three story house, later we moved to Paradise Valley by Bilington. This was a little tourist town and it had gold, trout fishing, cabins and a small toy church. We lived in a one room cabin; it had one bed and a big wood burning cook stove. All of our water to drink wash and cook came from the creek. Shirley even washed our clothes in the creek. After this great experience, I traded the chainsaw for a transmission to fix the 1959 Chevy I bought from a junk yard. The car worked great and got us back to Hugo safely. I went to work for my dad at the Texaco station in Hugo for a while. We then moved to Commerce City where I went to work building Mitchell Campers. I then took a job for Fina Oil and had a grand opening down on South Federal in the small town of Sheridan. We found a small house at 3108 West Jefferson just a block from my station. We moved there and I ran the station for a year. Then I had a chance to start building houses and I loved doing carpenter work. I learned every aspect of being a builder and after a year started my own business building houses. I built 300 houses and condos from the ground up. This was a great time in our life. We decided to add to the family and have Tom and Shelley, now a family of six. The kids went to school in Sheridan. In I976 Wayne joined a boxing team and I did not get along with the boxing coach. I took Wayne and Jason and joined the Southwest Denver boxing club where I also coached. We had 28 boys on the team and boxed out of the VFW at Evans on the Platte River. The boys both excelled in boxing and other sports in school. At this time Shirley raised the four kids and worked at the Oakley Tube Corp making needles. She later went to work sewing bingo cards for Las Vegas casinos and other places in the world. I later went to work for Burt Welz Co. and after a year went to work for Doug Steele construction. We built government buildings like post offices and campgrounds. Then around this time came Zane, Yep family of seven. When Zane was only a few months old I came home one day and told the family we were moving to Hugo. Wayne had just graduated from Sheridan high school. Wayne and Jason took my pickup and trailer and moved about ten loads of our stuff to Hugo to a house owned by Dr. H.J. Scarinzi. We lived in the house for six to eight months at which time Wayne married the doctor’s daughter Maria Scarinzi. Our next move was to a house in Genoa directly across the street from the cafe Shirley rented from her Aunt Alta Holmes. After about one year of operating the cafe I told Shirley to offer Alta some money to buy the cafe. Shirley came back and said that we now own the café. For the next fourteen years we worked seven days a week and stayed busy. Tom graduated Hugo high school in 1989 and got married to Angela Jones about the same time. Jason got married to Nancy Reynolds and Shelley went to college to be a nurse in Sterling after graduation from Hugo. During our time running Shirley’s Café we doubled the size and added a three bedroom house and a two car garage. Shelley eventually married Dale Cochran from Limon and Zane was still a little man in school. I worked for the county for a couple of years and built some garages and additions around the area. In 1994 when I was 53 years old I had my first heart attack while working outside. I was air lifted to Denver by helicopter where I was in the hospital for a week. It was during this time that I really found God. I have never prayed so much in my life as I did during that week. I quit smoking the day of my heart attack. After living quietly for a while we built Jason a new house in Flagler, Colorado. After many years of running the cafe’ I asked Shirley to sell it. She sold the café and we moved to Limon to a house owned by Shelley and Dale. While living on 6th street in Limon, I remodeled the rental house and Shirley went to work at the Lincoln Community hospital in Hugo as the head cook. Our next move was back to Hugo once again so Shirley did not have to drive in the winter to work. Now by this time we have many grand kids. Wayne talked about building a new house and I warned him to not wait long because I was afraid I could “Croak” at any time. We drew a blueprint on a piece of wood and built a big beautiful house. Wayne’s house had a full finished basement with a bar and a very large garage with half basketball court for Brian and Kayla which are Wayne’s children. On the outside of the house we dug a large fishing pond which we stocked with trout. The trout grew very large and was the talk of the town. Meanwhile, Wayne was working for the Town of Hugo and Jason worked for the County of Kit Carson at Flagler. Tom worked for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and Shelley was working as a nurse. Zane got out of school and went to work for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office as a dispatcher. Zane also got married shortly after starting work with the Sheriff’s Office. By this time in life I have had four heart attacks and had several Stints put in my heart and a quad bi-pass surgery. Let me tell you the bi-pass was the worst experience of my life now. My sister Betty was killed in a one car accident in Oklahoma Naomi’s son Jerry was killed in a one car accident at Limon. One of Gary’s twins, Alicia was killed while being a passenger in a pickup that hit another vehicle. My brother Jim died of a heart attack while driving to Glenwood Springs to work. My Grandpa died while I was stationed in Hawaii and my Dad died shortly after Zane was born and grandma died while we owned the café in Genoa. Around 2002 we went to Memphis and seen Graceland then on to Nashville then went back to West Virginia. We visited with Uncle Denver Martin and family we visited old places and the Valley Furnace, the new Hope Valley Church and cemetery. We had to return home early because mom got sick. Mom lived by herself for many years until one day I found her on the floor with a broken hip. She went to Sky Ridge Hospital in Denver and got her hip fixed but had no choice but to put her at the nursing home in Hugo. Mom really hated this but at this time Naomi moved to Arizona and Charles lives in Cheyenne wells. Gary lived in Gypsum and Sue at Buena Vista. Mom fell and broke her hip again in the nursing home and is obviously getting worse every day. She is 90 when this was written. We have around a dozen grandchildren now in 2007. We have three of them in college and a couple to graduate soon. One grandson is headed to the Marine Corp, 50 years from when I did. Shirley is still at the hospital as the head cook and will retire in 2008. Wayne’s wife is the town clerk in Hugo and Wayne still works for the town of Hugo. Jason was the town manager for Flagler for many years and now he and his second wife is going to work for the state prison in Limon. Tom was elected the Lincoln County Sheriff in 2007 and his second wife Cheri works at the Hugo Hospital as an X-ray Tech. Shelley is a Nurse at the Hugo Hospital and her husband Dale owns 30 rental houses in Limon. Zane lives in Limon and is the Dispatch Supervisor for the Lincoln County Sheriff s Office. Zane’s wife Jennifer was elected the Lincoln County Coroner. Mom was just put on comfort measures and will probably not be around long. Looks like our lives are coming to the twilight years. Our children and Grand Children will have to write the next chapter. But back to our life, I could have never gotten a better woman, wife or mother than Shirley. We were blessed by God with the very greatest life that anybody could ask. Our children are the very best good honest and hardworking people that we could ever ask for. And check out our grandchildren, the best of the best. We came from good stock in West Virginia and to pair up with the Halverson’s was a blessing. Shirley’s mother and dad, her brother and sisters are all good people. During all happy times we had a few sad ones too. Shirley’s sister died of Leukemia very young. We have lost grandparents, mothers, fathers, Uncles and Aunts. We have made lots of friends over our life. I have had great men work for me and they were my friends. If I would have the privilege to live my life again, I don’t think I would change a thing. I would have a fear of not having the great blessed life I have had with Shirley and my kids and grandchildren.