Linwood Warren Ivy - "Sonny"

Original post date: Wednesday, November 28, 2007


Linwood Warren Ivy - "Sonny"

March 25, 1947

November 23, 2007

Husband, Father, Brother



Hey I just wanted to let everyone know what was said about my dad by his best friend. These were the notes for his eulogy.


GOOD MORNING. I would like to take a few moments to share with you some thoughts about Linwood " Sonny" Ivy.
Someone once said "Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some Stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.

My wife, Myrtle, and I were 2 of the lucky people to have this happened to. Some of you also had the privilege of knowing Linwood Warren Ivy the same way we did. When I first met Sonny I did not know for a while that his real name was Linwood. I thought that his name was "Sonny" and this Linwood was someone else or a relative. Sonny told me he got this nickname from his Mom. She would call from the back porch and rather than calling his name—Linwood—she would call "Son" and this soon became "Sonny" which stuck with him.

I first met Sonny in the Chief Petty Officer barracks at the Charleston Naval base in late 1979. We both had gone through divorces and this was one of the many common threads we had. We were both Navy CPO's, instructors (at different commands), divorced, and living in the barracks. Sonny was a mineman and I was a torpedoman having served aboard submarines. His entire time at sea was only 18 months and I would tease him about having such a short sea time. I found out that he had served a tour in VietNam which later came back to haunt him.

It seemed that we had started a friendship that developed into a strong, lasting one. We spent a lot of time together during our off time. We would sometimes go out and end up either in the early morning or late night at one of the local restaurants named "STEAK & EGG". Usually at this time of the night/morning there was only the cook or waitress. I must interject at this point a fact about Sonny. He had taken dance lessons during his school days and was a very good dancer, more about the dancing in a few minutes. We would order breakfast, place a quarter in the juke box and Sonny would start dancing with the cook or waitress to the music of Captain & Tennille or other groups. This was all in fun and everyone enjoyed it.

In early March of 1980 Sonny got the word that his Father had died and he left to go back to Portsmouth for the funeral. His father's funeral was on March 6th in the morning. That afternoon Sonny's Mother died. She had always said that she wanted to outlive her husband to take care of him. This was such a heavy burden to have within this short time. We talked about this when Sonny returned to Charleston and shared some crying times together. That is what friends are for. Sometime later Sonny asked me to go with him to Portsmouth to get some of the family furniture that he and his sister, Bonnie, had agreed to divide. When we returned from Portsmouth, Sonny could not stay in the barracks with all the furniture and so he rented an apartment into which we moved the furniture. Sonny lived in that apartment until his marriage.

During this period, I started attending a single's group at the Unitarian Church called NEW WINE. It was here that I met Myrtle, my wife. Myrtle lived in a small house in Mount Pleasant that needed a new roof. Perhaps to impress her, I told her I could do the roof job and would get some help. She only had to provide some food and buy the roofing materials. I called a friend named Don and asked Sonny to come and help. Little did any of us know what the outcome of this event would really be. As the work progressed, Sonny and Don talked and Don informed Sonny that he had an unmarried sister-in-law. Later a blind date was set up to have Sonny meet Helen. This meeting resulted in Sonny spending his weekends going up the road to Union, SC where Helen worked as a Librarian. This relationship deepened and in June 1981 I had the honor of being the best man at the wedding of LINWOOD W. IVY and HELEN PARRISH.

Sonny continued in the Navy, took a tour in Guam with his wife and children, returned to Charleston for another tour of duty and finally retired on May 15th, 1988.What was this person named Sonny really like? Aristoltle once said, "Friendship is essentially a partnership". That is how it was with Sonny. Prior to my marriage to Myrtle, I had to be out of town over the Christmas holidays with my children. Knowing that she was alone, Sonny visited her and spent time with her. He did this with out my asking but because he was a caring person. He was the type of person who would help others even if they were strangers. He would do this because Sonny saw something that was needed to be done. Helen and Sonny have some very close friends that live in Union, SC that they would visit. Sonny would call up Jim or Pearl and ask what needed to be done and then pack the necessary tools to do the job, which he would then do. This was the type of person Sonny was. Helen who is the head Librarian at FT, Johnson Marine center would come home and discuss a particular problem with shelving or similar issue and Sonny would help with a solution and it usually involved Sonny getting the problem solved.

Sonny would joke about a lot of different things. He almost always seemed to find a way of integrating the art of teaching when he tried to show someone something new. He enjoyed teaching something. His vast knowledge seemed to be endless. He had a large collection of seashells that he could identify and probably tell you their name in Latin and tell the characteristics of each. A lot of them were collected by Sonny and family when stationed in GUAM. He was well read and could carry on a conversation on just about any subject. He enjoyed reading about far-away places and had an almost complete collection of National Geographic most of which he had read.

Sonny believed in and lived by the Golden rule. Sonny worked with me for many years doing Home repairs, painting, and other odd jobs. He had great knowledge of how to do many various things and there was a lot of time when words were really not said between us. Talk was just not needed. Dag Hammarskjold once said" Friendship needs no words". A lot of the time this was the way of us. A lot of the people we worked for were older women who could not do some of the work themselves. I enjoyed watching Sonny interact with them because of the high respect and, the love and care he would show to them. This is a snapshot of the Sonny I will remember. Yes, Sonny had his problems, but if these more recent problems are pushed aside you will find a true Husband who adored and loved his wife; a father who wanted the best for his children and loved them and their family; and a person who cared about family and friends; and a real true friend.

I would like for us to remember Linwood "SONNY" Ivy not as a person who had a problem with alcohol but as I have mentioned - A WARM CARING PERSON. A person who had strong courage in trying to face and overcome his problems.

Earlier I had mentioned Sonny's ability to "cut a rug" on the dance floor. He and Helen attended more dance classes and eventually entered ballroom competitions where they won several events. Growing up I never learned how to dance and was a bit shy about dancing. Sonny came by my room in the barracks one time and heard the radio playing. He then started doing the cha-cha. I watched him and with strong encouraging from him I tried to do some of the steps. My room was small so we moved into the hall. Now visualize this, two grown men in the hallway of the barracks with one trying to teach a klutz how to do the cha-cha. Within a few minutes two more men joined and were learning how to cha-cha. That was Sonny and that is the person I would like for you to remember.



A JEWISH SAYING GOES LIKE THIS:: WHOEVER FINDS A FAITHFUL FRIEND, FINDS A TREASURE.



SO SONNY. HERE IS TO YOU!!! Here is looking at you Kid!!!



CHA-CHA CHA-CHA-CHA