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Osford Weekes Obituary

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Osford Weekes

Jamaica, NY

April 3, 1925 - January 9, 2017

Osford Weekes Obituary

Osford “Ozzie” Calvin Weekes was born April 3, 1925 in Brooklyn NY to Oswald Weekes and Minnie Moore. He was the oldest son and third in a line of seven siblings: Gloria Parris, Varica Nurse, Eugline Samuels, Helen Louie, Joshua Weekes and Edna Hinds. Osford graduated from Boys High and went on to Technical school where he took up mechanical drawing and learned to be a machinist. In 1943 Osford was drafted by the U.S. Army to serve during World War II, where he rose in rank to Corporal. He qualified as a Marksman and was commissioned to travel abroad to several countries including Italy, Germany, Japan, and France. He believed in being prepared and made it a point to learn as much as he could about each country’s language prior to deployment. During his military career he was awarded many medals including a Purple Heart. In 1951, he married Emily June Durant with whom he had four children, Preston, Ronald, Denise and Glenn. The two worked diligently to secure a four-family building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn that provided a 10-room homestead as well as additional rental apartments. Osford utilized his skills to maintain the building and taught his children how to do their chores to perfection. Even though he worked tirelessly to have a hands-on approach to fixing and improving his property, he took time on Sundays to check the children’s notebooks to ensure their assignments were neat and correct. He remained with Emily until her untimely death in 1978. After the service, Osford landed a job as a machinist for the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he worked until it closed in 1967. Afterwards, he went to the Housing Authority where he started out as a mechanic and worked his way to Heating Plant Technician. He believed in challenging himself by studying and taking tests for advancement which led to his promotion to Superintendent in charge of contractors for Housing, including overseeing several housing developments on the lower east side of Manhattan. In the mid-eighties, Osford married Cheryl Howell and they had two daughters, Amelia and Katrina. And even though he took care of his responsibilities with his new family, he never lost sight of all his children. He included his boys in the day to day care of the building and in showing them how a strong determination would help them reach their goals. He applied his belief in the proverb, “as you sow, so shall you reap,” literally and taught his kids to seek out books with information on anything they didn’t know. In this way, Osford gained a valuable knowledge of so many things outside of his skillset. He made car repairs, roofing, plumbing, structural changes in his building aside from making his own tools to help him satisfy a job. Almost nothing was too big that Osford would not attempt to learn. A thoroughly accomplished, well-informed person, Osford enjoyed sharing knowledge with his kids, especially when it came to working with tools. His hands-on attitude and work ethics were at times amazing to those who came to know him. Forever learning, Osford took classes in Chinese cooking, perfecting his culinary skills. He loved jazz and played the tenor sax. He was an avid bowler and played in leagues. But most importantly, his ability to use books to heighten his skills was legendary. He embraced his children equally, stating that he loved them all the same and showed them how to maintain their health as well as their wealth. While Poppa didn’t take no mess, he gave his children enough courage to help them to become equally self-sufficient. Even when his health failed and his vision became seriously impaired, Osford devised ways to help him stay independent – organizing and putting identifiers on things that would make it easy for him to get dressed and maintain himself as much as possible. Osford leaves to mourn his children, Preston, Ronald, Denise Coipel, Glenn, Katrina, Amelia Johnson; daughter-in-laws Diane and Charlene; son-in laws Simon Coipel, Andrew Johnson; ex-wife Cheryl Howell; sister Euglene Samuels; brother-in-law Calvin Nurse and Seymour Hinds; grandchildren Latesha Tucker, Jennifer Weekes, grandson-in-law Chris Tucker, a total of 12 great-grandchildren, along with a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Osford worked hard, his work is done, may he rest in peace eternally.

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