By Tom Harmon
On Sept. 18, our cousin Gary D. Moore turned 81.
He now holds the title of oldest living male Moore in our immediate family, a direct descendant of our great-grandparents, Will and Sallie Moore, and our great-great-grandpa, John Lemon Moore.
Gary is the son of Major and AnnaLee Moore, and the nephew of our beloved Jack and Opal Moore.
I grew up right alongside him—we were born just six days apart in 1944, and we’ve been like brothers ever since. Summers were spent here on Lake St. Helen. We both worked at Hamady Brothers Grocery in Flint, chased girls all over Michigan (and at the Music Box in Houghton Lake), and in 1962, we graduated together as part of the very first class of Ainsworth High School. That same fall, we both enlisted in the U.S. Air Force.
After our discharge in 1966, Gary became a police officer in Seattle, Washington, where he served 10 years while also staying active in the Air Force Reserve. Eventually, he returned to the Air Force full-time, retiring as a Master Sergeant and First Sergeant after 32 years of service as a Flight Engineer on C-141 Globemaster cargo planes.
He’s also a proud 32nd-degree Mason, carrying on a family tradition that began with Jack and Major Moore many years ago.
Next month, Gary will be back in Michigan for one last bow season in the woods of St. Helen, where he and I have been hanging bucks on the pole since we were 14 years old. With luck, we’ll put one more up there this fall.
There will be one last campfire, one last cold beer, and one last Masonic handshake and hug before he heads west into the sunset, one last time.
I will miss him—his laugh, his stories, the memories of cruising Saginaw Street in our hot rods, and dancing with girls who were always way out of our league.
It’s been a good ride. He always rode shotgun, and we’ve had each other’s back since we were kids.
Happy Birthday, Gary. Still brothers, all these years later.
—Tom
