Paul Lyke

Paul Arthur Lyke was the Third Son and Seventh Child born to Lewis Albert and Laura May (Dietschler) Lyke on 29th November 1917. He was the first child to be born in Kalamazoo, MI and in a hospital. Paul had one more sister Alberta and four more brothers which included two still born babies Jerry in 1924 and Alan in 1929. The family also received the most special gift when after the death of daughter Ethel Luella they were able to adopt her son Jerry Seymour and so the last brother made the family complete.

Because Paul was born on Thanksgiving Day in that year, he always said he was his Mothers Turkey. When he met Bette and finding out she was born right before the 4th of July she obviously was her Fathers firecracker.

Life growing up on the early 1920s in a big family would have had to be somewhat chaotic, so discipline was ingrained at an early age. The Lyke family lived in a small house at 622 W. Walnut, so toys had to be picked up, clothes put away, dishes done. From the oldest to the youngest everyone had chores.

Paul's Dad, Lewis and oldest brother Albert, worked at Western Michigan University in those early years painting and doing maintenance work. It is hard to imagine now with all the traffic on Oakland Dr. any Mother would let their young children be by themselves to run up that hill but that is exactly what Laura let Paul and his brother Lewis do. They would race up that hill at quitting time and the first to reach their Dad and brother would be rewarded with half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It had to be quite a competition.

In 1929 Lewis and Laura had by then suffered the deaths of four of their children and looked to move to fresher pastures literally. They moved out to a farm in Otsego down the street from the old little red schoolhouse. All the family took to life in the country. By this time the oldest children had moved out so Paul and the other siblings loved to see Als’ big old car come roaring down the road with the lights aglow on a Saturday night. He always brought some kind of treat. One of the excursions that Paul took after Bette's death was out to the old farm. No one was home but Paul, his daughter and son-in-law walked the driveway and looked at the old barn still standing while Paul talked about pitching hay and pointed out where his Mothers vegetable garden had been. The old farm house was gone and a big sprawling house replaced it. Later, Paul was able to call the people that now resided there and they had a lively conversation.

The country life only lasted about three years and then the family moved back into Kalamazoo to the house on Lincoln Avenue where Paul would live until 1955 when his own home was built. Another child had married and moved out so they were now just the five boys and one sister. Laura May was diagnosed with breast cancer in the year after they moved and Paul at 16 was called to her bedside and was holding her hand as she died in March of 1934. 80 years almost later Paul would recount that time it was always vivid in his mind.

Going to Central High School Paul took many shop classes. He had promised his Mother that he would receive his high school diploma, but in 1936 in his senior year his shop teacher York Duffy came to him and told him there was an apprenticeship for a machinist at Sutherland Paper Company. Mr. Duffy thought that Paul should take it. After much discussion with his Dad and brother, Al, he dropped out of school and pursued his career which lasted 44 years and took him up to Supervisor. The only time he left was his service in WWII. In June of 2007, many of his family were present as Paul picked up his that 1936 diploma that had been waiting for him for so many years.

On a summer day the 3rd of July to be exact, in what was the only time in Dads life to not be actively working (due to a dispute with the boss). Paul was driving his 1928 Chrysler convertible with his friend Russ on East Main St. when Russ spied two girls walking one of whom he recognized. Changing the course of history forever he asked Paul about giving the girls a lift. One of those girls was Bette and when Paul opened the car door to get them seated, she said; “I’m with you”. And so it was for the next 69 years through good times and bad. They wed at the house on Lincoln Avenue on the stroke of midnight January 1, 1940, Bette wore a light blue satin dress that matched the color of her eyes and with her long blonde hair Paul knew he had found his queen.

War came to this country in 1941. Paul and Bette listened to the news of Pearl Harbor as everyone did on the radio. He was at the paper mill and had an automatic deferment. At least two times the bosses talked him out of going to the recruiters. Finally, Paul told them it was enough he had 2 younger brothers that had already been drafted and he was going to join too.

He was sent to Great Lakes Naval Academy where he told the instructors he couldn’t learn to swim and if his ship was sunk it was better to drown that wait for the sharks. He was then sent to Ft. Pierce, FL and he had a CO there tell him he could have a permanent berth there and his wife could come down. It was tempting but not for Paul. He went to Boston, where they were building LSTs and became the Coxswain of the LST 1061 and served with 129 others including the officers. Other than the officers he was the oldest man on board, In August of 1945, the LST 1061 sat in port waiting to disembark troops on the beaches of Japan. Instead the bombs were dropped and Paul watched Japan surrender from his ship in the flotilla. They pulled out of Okinawa as a typhoon came in and lost a bow door. They traveled all the way back across the Pacific with a missing bow door.

When Paul was discharged and came home he and Bette started planning on family again. They both wanted a large one. After many miscarriages and in the process of adoption, They finally had a daughter, Patti in 1952. Miscarriages again process of adoptions and six months of staying in bed and their son Scott was born in 1958. Paul and Bette had been remarried in the Catholic Church and he had readily agreed to raise the children Catholic. Years later, Patti and Scott had the privilege of being their Fathers Godparents when he embraced Catholicism.

In 1954 Paul and Bette broke ground on what would be their forever home on the corner of East Main and Chrysler. It was a good neighborhood to raise children in and they planted flower and vegetable gardens. There was no television so Paul would listen to baseball to his beloved Detroit Tigers on the radio in his garage as he would putter. Later on first his son and then his grandson, Michael were included in those times of radio listening as well as going to games.

Paul had always been a worker. As a young boy in the Vine neighborhood he carried two big bags of newspapers to distribute. Candy bars such as Clark, Babe Ruth and Milky Way were introduced and Paul sold those for a nickel a bar. He sold magazines such as ‘Ladies Home Journal’ and the Post .In the early years of working at Sutherlands, he and another friend Fred Estree went into the popcorn business. They called it ‘Popcorn Sez’ and soon the vending machines were literally ‘popping’ up. Later years, he and Bette with Walter and Rita Miskowski opened the Kleen-O-Rama laundry and dry cleaners at 4213 Portage Road. The business was sold in the late 1970s and Paul after going through many name changes with the Paper Company finally retired in 1980. However, after a year he had had enough of sitting around and went to work for American National Bank as a bank messenger. That ‘career’ lasted for 10 years until the third merger when Paul once again retired for the last time of holding a paying job.

Both Paul and Bette pursued many activities. They both strongly believed in giving back to their Community. Paul had come back from war and helped start both an American Legion and an AMBUCS Club downtown. He joined a Rotary. They were always doing something whether paper supplies to the childrens schools or making sloppy joes and brownies, they always gave with a cheerful heart. Paul became a Lifetime Member of the VFW Post 1527 on Kilgore Rd. When he received a letter from a retired admiral saying that Navy men and women wanted to build a Memorial in Washington DC without a penny being spent from the federal government Paul was right there as a proud plank owner. This past summer of 2013 he spent a day in the Capitol with most of it being at the Navy Memorial.

In the last few years with his daughter, Paul found his paternal Grandfathers grave site and that he was a Civil War veteran. He was very proud to be present as a headstone was placed to honor another family warrior. This brought Paul to join his last organization; Sons of Union Civil War Veterans Camp 20. He was very proud of being able to do that even if he did not make it to many meetings. One of his last occasions with them was his 96th birthday where 3 brothers gathered to celebrate with him at Borgess Gardens Rehab. For days afterwards he talked about how wonderful these guys were.

We can’t get away without mentioning that Paul was also a championship bowler and golfer. He loved cards and he and Bette as the family knows loved Las Vegas and the Slot machines. He also loved telling stories and walking with his grandchildren and one of his great granddaughters. He was very excited to be on a cruise ship when his oldest great granddaughter used him for her ‘Lucky Charm’ as she continued the family slot machine tradition.

Paul was over all a very healthy man. In 1980 after some gall bladder attacks he had it removed. The biggest health scare came in 1989 when he found a lump that turned out to be breast cancer. He was a 24 year plus survivor, taking only 2 Tylenol for pain in the hospital.

1999 was the start of Bettes health issues with a TIA in November followed by a stroke in April of the following year. Paul was a fantastic nurse anything and everything that Bette had ever spoke about had always been made to happen and this was no different. As her health failed, he took her to the bathroom, changed beds and anything else. In 2005 Bette had pneumonia and was brought home with Hospice Paul would not leave her side. She improved and Hospice was discharged. In November of 2006 pneumonia struck again and this time Paul lost the love of his life. Bette died on December 1, 2006.

After her passing no one knew if Paul would even begin to overcome his grief and he never fully did. But little by little with the help of Patti and Bob he did. Many trips happened. He reconnected with his shipmates and went and even hosted a reunion in Kalamazoo in 2010. He saw Pattis excitement when she located her fifth great grandparents headstone in North Carolina. He met a first cousin he never knew he had in GA and went to see them every year. Another first cousin that was just a few moths younger than him was also on the trip agenda. They both wanted to go to the 100 mark. He ‘walked’ the Mackinac Bridge, with his daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter and son Diann and Richey. He celebrated Dianns promotion in WI with a trip to a new casino and went to dinner where he and Richey split a 2lb steak dinner. He made trips to FL to see his grandson Michael and a Tigers Game in the Spring Sunshine. A family cruise made more poignant by the fact that Bette wasn’t with him. Life was good. His last trip this past summer was an East Coast one where he participated in a big reunion of Bettes relatives, went to Boston to the Navy Yard, the Capitol and then to Gettysburg where he stood on the same land that his grandfather had fought on.

Once again we were looking at winter which he had started to hate. In October of 2013 he had a fall which fractured 3 ribs as well as having an infection from too little fluids. A week in the hospital and he went to rehab. There he was attended not just by his family and a great staff as well as a wonderful woman that has come to be a member of our family in the last 8 years, Roni Hill. What a blessing she has been, both in Pauls and Bettes lives as well as all the rest of the family. After 42 days in rehab Paul came home. He was to have some continuing therapies but rapidly went back to not eating, drinking and exercising. Another infection once more brought him to the hospital shorter time and was sent back for what his family thought would be a very short stay before returning home. Unfortunately, it was a short stay with a very different ending. Paul suffered a massive heart attack the morning of January 28th. He had requested to have everything possible done as in his words “he wanted” to live. Sadly he lost the battle on this earth but he has been reunited with Bette and lives on.

Paul had a blessing that he said every night. He called it his Prayer of Blessings. It went like this; “Dear Heavenly Father, it’s that time again when I must give thanks for all the many blessings that I have received in this life. The nicest blessing I have ever received in life besides my dear parents was the beautiful blue eyed blonde, young lady with the beautiful personality to match that You introduced to me on her sixteenth birthday. Thank you for all the years we were able to share. I want to bless my dear daughter and son-in-law for all the hard work they did in helping us with our home. Bless the doctors and nurses for taking care of my wife until you were ready to take her home. Bless my children and their children and their children for all they have done to help me through this time. Father, last but not least, thank You for the blessings of out pets, especially ‘Tasha’ as You gave me the courage and the strength to take care of her also in her last days. AMEN”