Hello, All, It has been about a month and no one has identified another member of Robert (1) 's sixth generation still living. I am fairly certain that my dad holds that distinction and is, therefore the nearest living relative to Robert (1) (generationally). Dad is celebrating his eightieth birthday next week and I thought some of you on the list might want to wish him a happy birthday. His email address is petelooney@msn.com and his snail mail address is 2340 Harwood Rd. Titusville, FL 32780. I hope I'm not too long winded but I have included a very short biography of Dad below. My Dad, Joseph H. "Pete" (6) Looney was born August 19, 1924 in a small southwest Kansas town named Protection. Protection exists mainly to support the local wheat and cattle farmers and like many of the small towns in the area has a wide paved main street lined with enormous live oaks. Growing up during the Depression was, I think, much harder on the grown ups than the kids who didn't yet know prosperity to measure how much was in short supply. For the kids fun was never in short supply. Depending what was in season, baseball, football, or basketball games were daily events. The equipment may have been well used but the play was fun. Dad also loved to hunt and fish - collecting the bounty on jackrabbits, which overpopulated the region, was a way to pay for more .22 cartridges with which to hunt. If the little single shot rifle wasn't available or out of ammo Dad was just as deadly with a slingshot at shorter ranges. In his teens Dad worked the wheat harvest and became very close to some of the local farmers. In high school he was active in all sports and, although he fancied himself a top-flight baseball pitcher his six foot three inch height probably worked best on the basketball court. Although never in trouble with the authority figures in his life he was not above pranks such as locking a cow in the principal's office over a weekend (even today he will neither confirm nor deny). By now WWII had begun and Dad, with his father's permission, enlisted in the Marine Corps at age seventeen after high school graduation. It was while in the Marines that he met and married my Mom, the former Mary Jo Burnett of Mayfield, KY (their 60th anniversary is next year, 2005). After the war, with college behind him Dad taught math and coached basketball for a while in small towns in Missouri and Kentucky. Finally settling in Mayfield, KY in the early '50s to raise a growing family. He worked for many years for Union Carbide Corp. but in the early '60s started work for Boeing in the early startup of the Saturn / Apollo space program. This work led him from Huntsville, AL to the Mississippi Gulf coast where the giant Saturn rocket engines were initially tested to finally settle in Titusville, FL in 1968. In charge of much of the pre / post-launch support activities for the Apollo program his crews "wrote the book" on many of the operations still in use today. Continuing into the Shuttle program for the first few launches Dad finally retired in the late '80s. A true Renaissance man I've never seen anything Dad couldn't do. An outstanding auto mechanic, motorcycle mechanic, home repairman, hunter, fisherman, jigsaw worker, skeet shooter, stained glass worker, woodcarver, sports nut, husband, and dad - what I would give to have half the knowledge and talent. In his day Dad was what was called a "man's man" and although I didn't think about at the time my boyhood screen hero, John Wayne, was playing roles my father could easily have filled. It was only in the last few years that Dad got interested in family history. This sparked visits to Virginia and West Virginia to trace the family and actually walk the ground they walked. Visits with Miss Elizabeth Looney and the wonderful book by cousin Madge Looney Crane and son Phillip helped fill in many of the early gaps. Because many of the men in our line had sons late in their lives Dad is, I believe, the last sixth generation member from the original Robert (1) and therefore the nearest living relative to Robert (1), a unique distinction. Pete? Where did Pete come from? Dad was named for a close friend of his father, Joseph Hubert Cogswell but was never called Joe or Joseph (although his mom always called him Hubert). His father Peter H. (5) was known as Pete or PH and I suspect when Dad came along he started life as "Repeat" and, eventually, "Pete". Dad has four children, thirteen grandchildren and one great grandchild. It was not until his second grandchild, my oldest, that the first official Pete Looney came along.

Thank you for sharing this wonderful sketch of your father's life. I hope you have let him read it. Amelia Orr Debusman (9th generation) At 11:54 AM 8/14/04, you wrote: >Hello, All, >It has been about a month and no one has identified another member of Robert >(1) 's sixth generation still living. I am fairly certain that my dad holds >that distinction and is, therefore the nearest living relative to Robert (1) >(generationally). Dad is celebrating his eightieth birthday next week and I >thought some of you on the list might want to wish him a happy birthday. His >email address is petelooney@msn.com and his snail mail address is 2340 >Harwood Rd. Titusville, FL 32780. I hope I'm not too long winded but I have >included a very short biography of Dad below. > >My Dad, Joseph H. "Pete" (6) Looney was born August 19, 1924 in a small >southwest Kansas town named Protection. Protection exists mainly to support >the local wheat and cattle farmers and like many of the small towns in the >area has a wide paved main street lined with enormous live oaks. > >Growing up during the Depression was, I think, much harder on the grown ups >than the kids who didn't yet know prosperity to measure how much was in >short supply. For the kids fun was never in short supply. Depending what was >in season, baseball, football, or basketball games were daily events. The >equipment may have been well used but the play was fun. Dad also loved to >hunt and fish - collecting the bounty on jackrabbits, which overpopulated >the region, was a way to pay for more .22 cartridges with which to hunt. If >the little single shot rifle wasn't available or out of ammo Dad was just as >deadly with a slingshot at shorter ranges. > >In his teens Dad worked the wheat harvest and became very close to some of >the local farmers. In high school he was active in all sports and, although >he fancied himself a top-flight baseball pitcher his six foot three inch >height probably worked best on the basketball court. Although never in >trouble with the authority figures in his life he was not above pranks such >as locking a cow in the principal's office over a weekend (even today he >will neither confirm nor deny). > >By now WWII had begun and Dad, with his father's permission, enlisted in the >Marine Corps at age seventeen after high school graduation. It was while in >the Marines that he met and married my Mom, the former Mary Jo Burnett of >Mayfield, KY (their 60th anniversary is next year, 2005). > >After the war, with college behind him Dad taught math and coached >basketball for a while in small towns in Missouri and Kentucky. Finally >settling in Mayfield, KY in the early '50s to raise a growing family. He >worked for many years for Union Carbide Corp. but in the early '60s started >work for Boeing in the early startup of the Saturn / Apollo space program. >This work led him from Huntsville, AL to the Mississippi Gulf coast where >the giant Saturn rocket engines were initially tested to finally settle in >Titusville, FL in 1968. In charge of much of the pre / post-launch support >activities for the Apollo program his crews "wrote the book" on many of the >operations still in use today. Continuing into the Shuttle program for the >first few launches Dad finally retired in the late '80s. > >A true Renaissance man I've never seen anything Dad couldn't do. An >outstanding auto mechanic, motorcycle mechanic, home repairman, hunter, >fisherman, jigsaw worker, skeet shooter, stained glass worker, woodcarver, >sports nut, husband, and dad - what I would give to have half the knowledge >and talent. In his day Dad was what was called a "man's man" and although I >didn't think about at the time my boyhood screen hero, John Wayne, was >playing roles my father could easily have filled. > >It was only in the last few years that Dad got interested in family history. >This sparked visits to Virginia and West Virginia to trace the family and >actually walk the ground they walked. Visits with Miss Elizabeth Looney and >the wonderful book by cousin Madge Looney Crane and son Phillip helped fill >in many of the early gaps. Because many of the men in our line had sons late >in their lives Dad is, I believe, the last sixth generation member from the >original Robert (1) and therefore the nearest living relative to Robert (1), >a unique distinction. > >Pete? Where did Pete come from? Dad was named for a close friend of his >father, Joseph Hubert Cogswell but was never called Joe or Joseph (although >his mom always called him Hubert). His father Peter H. (5) was known as Pete >or PH and I suspect when Dad came along he started life as "Repeat" and, >eventually, "Pete". Dad has four children, thirteen grandchildren and one >great grandchild. It was not until his second grandchild, my oldest, that >the first official Pete Looney came along. > > > > > > > > > >==== LOONEY Mailing List ==== >See our HomePages at > http://Members.AOL.Com/jsully7 (Descendants of Robert Lunney) or > http://www.Flash.Net/~johnsonl (Includes Leroy W. Tilton's work) or > http://Welcome.to/TheLooneyFamily (Elsie Stroud's Works) or > http://www.mindspring.com/~mozark (William(4) and NE AR & SE MO Looneys)