Wednesday, July 28, 2010

To Ken's dear friends,

We should know by tomorrow afternoon, (which would be Thursday, 7/29/2010), of the dates and times for Ken's visitation services and his memorial service. We are planning something very special. In the meantime, we are asking anyone and everyone who has a kind rememberance or funny story about Kenny to let us know, as we are hoping to have a tribute event, where everyone can get up and share their story with the rest of us. Feel free to leave a comment on this blog, if you have a story that you'd like to take the time to write and share with all of us, right away, and/or give me a call, and we can chat about Ken's tribute event. My cell phone number is 608-358-4418.

Ken put up such a great fight, but we suspect that the cancer had spread to his brain, as things were just starting to fail. He was tired, and he was ready to let go. We are grateful for the time we had with Ken, over the last seven months, to say our "I love you's", and our "I'm sorry's", and to help him put things in order as best they could be put, before he moved on to that great motorcycle shop in the sky. As Ken's brother Mike put it today, we know that all of the Harley's in heaven will be running a lot better, now!

More tomorrow,
Laura

3 comments:

  1. I only knew Ken from the what work he did on the bikes, and occasional conversations we had over the years, however he was always in good spirits and had a good word to say. I remember once when I got another bike and had a problem, I rode in as he was closing, he took the time to help me with the issue, and when I asked what I owed him he said 'don't worry about it, and gave me some extra fuses in case I blew another one later. If you needed something in a hurry he was alwasy there for you. I will truly miss him, it was always nice to stop by, and talk with him. I recall that you could eat off the lifts and floor in his shop. He was one of a kind. My sincere condolences, I will rememeber you all in my prayers.

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  2. Way back in the 1970's I purchased a BSA 500 that "just needed rings", HA HA. Kenny and I took it over to his Mom's house on Walnut Street. We put it together in the basement. We had no manuals, no techical data at all. We spent one whole night with a pencil and paper trying to figure out where the timing should be set. Dragged it up the stairs, got it outside and it started right up. Kenny had a 650 BSA Lightning at the time, when we would go ridiing, mine would always start on the first kick, Kenny would kick and cuss, kick and cuss, somtimes it would kick him back. Ken was a good friend and my whole family is going to miss him a lot.
    Joe, Debby Manker

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  3. I will miss Kenny Dean dearly......we go back over 40 years.....and you know how you can always remember what you were doing when a great event happens.....Well it was July 20th,1969, a hot summer night....I was where I seamed to always be working on doing something at Kenny's house on Whittier.This night we were under my 66 Ford cutting holes for cut outs on the exhaust when Marcy , Mike, Laura yelled....."come in quick they are about to step on the moon".We crawled out from under the car and ran in and all watched.....Kenny and I weren't that impressed and just went back to the car.So the USA landing on the moon will be for ever etched into my mind and I will think of Kenny....
    I have to laugh about Joes's comment before this......we used to joke that we hauled Kenny's Harley up and down more basement steps and put more miles on it that way than he rode it....
    I hope Kenny's at the top step and ready to ride now....oh and one more thing .....I hope Kenny is finally enjoying stereo and now knows what "Stairway to Heaven" sounds like in full stereo...

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