Herbert Hoover "Red" Poole

HERBERT HOOVER "RED" POOLE Funeral services for longtime Dove Creek resident Herbert Hoover "Red" Poole will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, March 27 at the Dove Creek First Southern Baptist Church with Pastor Mark Coffey officiating. Interment will follow at Dove Creek Cemetery. Visitation will be held Monday morning beginning at 10 a.m. at the First Southern Baptist Church. Herbert (Red) was born on August 29, 1928 to Henry Sims Poole and Willie Lee (Woodruff) Poole at home in Cass County, Texas. He was the 7th of 13 children. They lived in East Texas until he was about 10 years old when they sold their horses, bought an old truck and moved to the Wheeler, Texas area. On the way to the Panhandle area, the truck broke down. A brother-in-law and brother hitched a ride to Wheeler to get an Uncle to come help them. Red went to work at a young age without finishing school. He worked for various farmers -- at one time living alone on the farm caring for the animals. The farmer would periodically bring out groceries and check on the farm. Another time, he worked for a farmer whose wife was in a wheelchair. Herbert cared for her while the farmer was out working. He would run out to get the farmer as needed. Another job was washing dishes in a cafe, where he received room and board and little money. There was a bed in a back room where he slept. He thought he was uptown because he ate in the cafe -- where he especially enjoyed the hamburgers. Owen remembers stopping in Sayre, Oklahoma to visit a couple whom he had lived with and worked for. As an older teen, he went on harvest with a few different crews. He married Leona Mae Skidmore at the preachers house in Wheeler, Texas on June 25, 1949. Red and Leona were married for 66 1/2 years before Leona passed away on January 1, 2016. They lived in different small towns in the Texas Panhandle before moving to Utah in 1953 where they lived in Monticello, White Canyon, and about 18 miles east of Monticello, and then built a home on Ucolo Rt. where they lived for many years before moving to Dove Creek in 2004. A favorite activity for Red and Leona was taking drives just to look at the countryside. He worked at sample plants and mills in Monticello, White Canyon, and Moab (carpooling 2 different times to the mill in Moab). In 1957, he bought a combine and started doing custom harvesting traveling to Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle, eastern Colorado, and the Dove Creek/Monticello area. He worked from May to November in the harvests. In the winter, he worked at various jobs--for the county, in uranium mines even a few times in Texas. After living and struggling thru life with little education, education for his children and others he was associated with became a very important priority of his. Red was a member of First Southern Baptist Church for many years. He loved his church family and enjoyed the Sunday School class and Worship Service. Red is survived by his 4 children: Owen Poole of Ucolo Rt. Utah; Jeanette (Steve) Henline of Boise, Idaho; Linda (Dennis) Gorsett of Grand Junction, Colorado; Nita (Dan) Graffis of Dove Creek; 12 grandchildren, Shelley, Phoebe, Marcie, Peter, Laura, Andrew, Christa, Ellary, Casey, Mark, Nic, and Brianna; 21 great grandchildren. He is survived by siblings Lloyd, Helen, Jean, and Eugene. Red was preceded in death by his wife Leona, his parents and siblings Tommy Wayne, Argus, Alma, Virgle, Maxie Lawrence, Maudine, and Donald Wayne; and several brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to First Southern Baptist Church.