J.D. Floyd, loving father, grandfather and great grandfather peacefully passed away on Saturday, March 16th, 2019 as a result of heart and renal failure. He had just celebrated his 88th birthday on February 7th with family at the assisted living community where he lived in South Jordan, Utah. He had many friends he enjoyed eating his meals with and sharing a few jokes.
His favorite line was “if you believe that, have I got a story for you! ” He was known for his sense of humor and always had a wisecrack for the caregivers. Everyone knew his name and greeted him warmly.
He was also the resident pool shark and had never lost a game. He was affectionately referred to as “that character J.D.” J.D. moved his little family from a small town in the Texas panhandle to a growing, booming area in Southern California known as Orange County. He and his wife, Frances, raised 3 beautiful and successful daughters, Donna (Dennis) Harmon of Garden Grove, CA, Julie (Bruce) Whittaker of Salt Lake City, Utah and Brenda Lovell of Dallas, Texas.
Between them, J.D. and Frances had 6 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren. They range in age from 1 year old to 18 years old. Dad was well loved by all his children and grandchildren.
If he had been given a middle name it would have been TEASER. My how that man loved to tease the children, but to make up he always had snickers and jellybeans as a reward for enduring the constant tormenting. Dad loved living in California, especially near the ocean.
As soon as he could, J.D. went out and bought a sailboat so he could take his family sailing. He took classes and became quite the sailor, even teaching course plotting to novice sailors. Every Sunday we spent the day on the ocean.
Dad was also quite the photographer back when people used cameras and film. He had a photo lab and dark room built in his garage and of course his best models were his 3 daughters, all dressed alike smiling sweetly for their photographer dad. His daughter Donna remembers: Dad and Mom came out to our house every weekend for three months to help us put in our new kitchen cabinets and build our deck on the house.
I know they probably had much better things to do with their time. Now whenever I go into my kitchen I will think of him. He was always there for me and I will miss him.
Dennis says he was a great influence on his life as well. There is a funny story about the deck he helped us build in the backyard. Dad said we could get all the boards for the deck on our truck in one trip, so we loaded it all on and we were going very slow when someone pulled out in front of us.
Dennis slammed on the brakes and all Dad said was “that guy was lucky he didn’t get a mouth full of toothpicks! ” That was dad, always understated! His granddaughter Amy said, “My favorite memories with Grandpa go back to summer mornings in California on their little farm.
I remember watching him feed his big, fat pig and collecting eggs, with a huge smile on his face and, as always, a hat on his head. I remember many summer afternoons putting together puzzles under the walnut tree and swinging in the front porch swing. I loved his laugh and strong hands that would try to crush a can flatter than the can crusher could.
I loved that he called us girls ‘Sugar! ’ One of my favorite memories was when we visited him in St. George and he took Carter for a ride on the golf cart. I don’t know who had more fun, him or Carter.
I remember how excited he got when he would tell us about his and Grandma’s RV adventures. Most recently, I loved visiting Grandpa with my kids. His face always lit up when we’d come.
He loved hearing my kid’s most recent adventures. He would often add his own adventures to the stories. My children loved hearing about the time news made it home before he did and how he went “a little too fast” on the way back from town in the family car or how early he had to get up before school to milk the cows or about his high school football team.
I loved how when it was time for us to leave, he would express his gratitude for our visit with tears in his eyes. It always made me feel special, like me and my family were important to him”. J.D. will be greatly missed.
His funny and sharp sense of humor, his ability to fix anything, and how much he truly loved all his family. I can just imagine him somewhere, surrounded by water with a fishing pole in one hand, a can of beer in the other and a hat on his head tilted over his eyes just waiting for that next bite.
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