Frank Gatlin

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I want to take a moment and mention the passing of Frank Gatlin. Frank was born near Union City, Tennessee on the western end of the state.

He grew up in a time when kids walked two-miles to school and picked cotton. They picked seven-days-a-week when the crop was ready. That may explain why Frank never learned to read.

Frank's family moved north and Frank got a job with General Motors in one of the Lansing factories. He was a proud member of UAW Local 652.

The top of Frank's head came level to my shoulder and I am not a tall man. He might have been 5'-0" in his work boots.

Frank worked himself up the food-chain as he gained seniority and he would win better (lower calorie burn) jobs. Toward the end he ran a fork-truck that removed full bins of metal scrap from the ends of stamping lines. He also delivered in-plant mail until they figured out that he could not read the addresses. It is a tribute to his work ethic that most of the mail ended up in the right place.

Frank was predeceased by his wife and survived at least 6 major heart attacks over a period of twenty years and whipped cancer twice in addition to being a brittle diabetic. He was an early riser and could be found at 24 hour diners as far north as Mackinaw City at any hour of the night or day. Generally, he could be found at the Quality Dairy in Eaton Rapids sometime between 5:00 AM and 9:00 AM. He would pop-in and chat-it-up with "his girls" and then be on his way.

Frank was generous to a fault. More than one damsel-in-distress had Frank "wrench" on her heap with Frank fronting the cost of the parts. More than one former damsel-in-distress never got around to paying Frank for those parts.

Frank was gullible in other ways. He believed that the clerk at the parts-counter of the local Chevy dealership had a direct line to Mary Barra. You had to be careful when Frank assured you that his information came "right from the top".

The loss of Frank leaves a hole in our community. Not because he was smart. Far from it. If you lined up 100 people from least-smart to smartest, Frank would be two or three from the not-smart end*. Frank will be missed because he was cheerful. Because he never stopped working. Because he was honest and would do what he said he would do. And he will be missed because he could keep his mouth shut when it mattered.

Frank passed away at the age of 89 last week.

*That would correspond to an IQ of approximately 70, the Mean minus two standard deviations....assuming you could find a test that did not require reading.