James Loveless died June 14th, while his self-proclaimed “second-favorite” son, Rocky, was headed home from Arizona to see him in the hospital. Rocky said he began to write about his dad’s love of fried foods, steaks and a certain brand of beer after the funeral director told him to just talk about his father.
“He would say, ‘Yep. That's Rocky. He wrote it.’ But he would also probably not even remember any of those things. Maybe except for the Busch and the room temperature Busch and the prime rib and the T-bone.”
Rocky’s tongue-in-cheek yet accurate description of his father mentioned his love of Busch Beer, chilled or not, which he hammered while cooking ribs in his trailer park. Rocky said he had no idea that newsrooms in Kansas, Ohio and elsewhere would take note.
“I didn't even know it would get outside the funeral home. I thought it was just gonna go. It's just, you know, some jokes for my dad's friends and family. And, you know, possibly say some stories that like some people knew, but not everybody.”
James Loveless’s obit ends with the sentence, “He will be moderately missed,” but Rocky said that part’s not true – he’s missed a lot.
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