Bobby Keith Gardner
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Bobby Keith Gardner, 88, of Overland Park, Kansas passed away peacefully at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Merriam , Kansas on August 3, 2018. He was born to the late Glenn & Delberta (Breese) Gardner in Leonardville, Kansas on March 17, 1930. He graduated from Keats High School in 1948. Bobby married his soulmate, Helen Stettnisch on June 6, 1948 and they celebrated seventy anniversaries together. He began a machinist trade at Viking Manufacturing in Manhattan, Kansas in 1949. They later moved to the Kansas City area in 1952. Bobby was employed at Bendix, Allied & Honeywell in Kansas City for thirty five years until retiring in 1990. He then owned his own business, Gardner Machine Shop, for fourteen years.
Bobby was preceded in death by his two sons, Glenn and David Gardner; brothers, Gurden and Kenneth Gardner and grandson, Adam Gardner. Survivors include his wife, Helen Gardner of the home; son, Michael Gardner; brother, Bruce Gardner; three grandchildren, Tabitha Birdsong, Monica Goss and Michelle Brady; as well as 8 8/9th great grandchildren.
Friends are invited to a celebration of his life at the Irene B. French Community Center, 5701 Merriam Drive, Merriam, Kansas, Campbell Room at 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. on Saturday, September 1, 2018.
I realize this is very late. I think of Bobby quite often after he did a little machining job for me late one night. I had never met him before but we ended up talking into the wee hours of the morning after he did my job (which he didn’t even want to accept payment for, but I paid him anyway!). I left at around 2am feeling like I had a new friend and it’s one of my regrets that I didn’t try harder to maintain that. I often wonder about his family and his shop, and wonder if anyone carried it on. I am so sorry for your loss. He was a good man.