Gary L. Mears

Gary L. Mears was born November 21, 1953 in Louisville, KY to the union of Girie and Roscoe Mears.

As a child, he received his elementary and junior high school education in the Louisville Catholic Schools, and graduated in 1971 from Louisville Male High School where he also was an active member of the R.O.T.C. Upon graduating from Eastern Kentucky University, where he majored in law enforcement in 1971, he joined the United States Army. During his military service, he served as a paratrooper. He achieved the rank of captain as a military policeman -- while serving overseas in West Germany (for three years) and here in the United States in Alabama and Oklahoma. Gary retired, after 27 years of service, from the Greyhound Bus Line where he was employed as both a driver and trainer.

Gary dedicated his life to Christ and was baptized in 1987 at the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church where he served in the van ministry until he was employed by Greyhound.

To many of his family and friends, he was regarded as a quiet, gentle man with a powerful and commanding voice when needed. And yet, this man loved westerns and super-heroes. Indeed, in the family room of his home there are pictures of Superman, Batman and the Incredible Hulk gracing the walls.

Gary leaves to cherish his memory: his wife, Janice, to whom he was married for 43 years; a daughter, Janeen (Rodney); two grandchildren, Nichelle and Roderick who affectionately called him "Gramps"; two sisters, Christine (Martin) and Nyree, one brother, Roscoe, one aunt, Omega, brother-in-law, Phillip (Georgette), sister-in-law, Norma, and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

The family requests that contributions in Gary's memory be made to Crusade for Children.

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