Garey Wagner, Sr.

Hazelwood, Garey Gilbert Wagner, Sr., age 67 of Brown Avenue, passed away Saturday, October 25, 2008 after a long and hard fought battle with pancreatic cancer. Born September 30, 1941 in Honolulu, Hawaii to the late Gilbert and Theresa Wagner, his father was a baker in the Navy. Shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack, all civilians were sent stateside. Garey was placed with his paternal grandparents, the late Henry and Amber Wagner to be raised in Ottawa, Illinois. He attended McKinley grade school and Ottawa Township High School, eventually graduating from Baton Rouge High School in Baton Rouge Louisiana. He had numerous credits from Joliet Junior College and the University of Illinois in fire science. He was a Captain on the Princeton, IL Fire Department and was also past secretary of the city planning commission and the zoning board of appeals in Princeton. He managed stores for Hornsby Family Centers, eventually moving to New Orleans where he was executive sales manager for John F. Lawhon Furniture for several years and then moved to Miami, where he was executive sales manager for Modern Age Furniture. While there, he met and married his wife Penny, who survives him. They moved to the beautiful mountains of North Carolina in 1991 and opened their present business, Blue Owl Gallery and have maintained that for the past 17+ years. In addition to his wife, friend and companion of the last 20 years, Penny, he is survived by two children from a previous marriage, Garey Wagner, Jr. (Denise) of the state of Washington and a daughter, Karen, of Michigan and the mother of his children, Nancy Thompson and five grandchildren. Also surviving are two sisters, Dianne "Rose" (Dean) of Ottawa and Caroline of Cherry and his sister-in-law, Peggy of Waynesville, N.C. Having grown up in the rural areas of Northern Illinois he gratefully appreciated the beauty of the mountains of W.N.C. and especially the hundreds of friends and customers he had formed a strong relationship with here in Waynesville. He and his wife are also big animal advocates and presently have 4 cats; speaking for them, any memorials presented should be sent to Sarge's Animal Rescue Foundation, P.O. Box 854, Waynesville, NC 28786 or the Francis Fund, P.O. Box 554 Waynesville, NC 28786; all local animal chapters which need your help for those that can not help themselves or to Haywood Regional Medical Center Hospice, 560 Leroy George Drive, Clyde, NC 28721. Memorial services will be held at a later date.