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Just got back,
Well I ended up being an hour late thinking the funeral started at 3pm, and instead it started at 2pm. I did get to see IMS Historian Donald Davidson relate a few good stories about Lloyd. Bill Puterbaugh drove straight from Indy to New Mexico(one stop only) for the viewing being held with the Unser family for Al Sr.'s daughter. Then he drove straight to Wichita Falls for Lloyds service! Dave Laycock, Lloyds cheif mechanic from the 60's was there too.
I'm standing there after the service as the procession is going out, and coming through is Parnelli Jones, Johnny Rutherford(who both gave a speech), Jim McElreath, and a slew of faces that looked familiarly distinguished. Eddie Hill and his wife were out there with those of us on the back rows. Not one dime was turned to bring these people in, rather respect is why they came down to this north Texas town. By 6pm this somber day had turned into 2 or 3 get togethers complete with laughter and a few refreshments the Good Lord is willing to forgive now and then. Lloyd would have been proud, we come to his funeral, and a respectfully decent party breaks out!
I heard a lot of great stories about Lloyd, need to write them all down as I heard them. But this is probably the best one that sums up the man-
Lloyd has rented an old garage right off of a large street in town for years, and once you see it, you never forget where it is. Down there he would play cards with his friends, hang out, even work on his stuff and even stuff for others if he was in the mood. If you walked in there, you might see him working on a lawn mower, or a good hand of cards. If you didn't know better, you wouldn't realize that in 5 minutes, someone from IMS, Ford Mo. Co., or who knows what or where else, would call either to see how he was doing or request his presence at an unveiling or ribbon cutting ceremony. FOR THE MOST PART, a simple game of cards with his friends was good enough for any day.
Well, a game of cards can make just about any man hungry after a while and one day they came across a guy there in town that could play a good game and he was a COOK! They invited him down there and eventually he was 'one of the guys'. It might have even been a bonus that this guy didn't know anything about racing and hardly, if at all, knew anything about Lloyd.
Every now and then, someone would come in off the four-lane and request an autograph from "Mr. Ruby". Lloyd would rattle one off, talk a little, and then everything would go back to normal. Over time the cook began to understand that Lloyd had done and seen several lifetimes in a relatively short span of years and was not forgotten. He was on the cover of the phone book, had an overpass named after him, a brand new GT-40 might pull in driven by a well to do fan, and you just never knew what was going to happen next.
One day the cook was debating about going home early to replace a fan motor on his air-conditioner. Lloyd jumped right in and said "Let's go do it right now". Cook replies, "Ah, I don't know, it could wait". Lloyd comes back, "Let's go fix it right now, that way we'll be done with it".
So they go out there and at some point Lloyd just took over and replaced the fan motor on the AC. The cook is thinking-'Here's "Mr. Ruby" fixing my air conditioner!'. .........But then it dawns on him, he only knows him as simply "Lloyd". In time that made it easier for him to kid Lloyd about putting the louvered guard on upside down!
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