Marvin Lloyd Martin II

Marvin Lloyd Martin, II was born January 3, 1948 in Long Beach, California; the son of Marvin L. Martin and Floriene Meleese Gist. Lloyd was their first child and the first of the cousins to follow. He enjoyed life as an infant and early on it was discovered he was sensitive to motion sickness. Nights were difficult and Lloyd needed lots of attention. His father walked the floor with him for many nights. Three years later, Lloyd welcomed (?) a sister, Janece to the family. They grew up in Southern California with a good amount of Aunts, Uncles, cousins and one set of Grandparents, near by. Lloyd liked to tease his sister. One night, she was scared there was something under her bed. Being the big brother; he said he would make sure everything was OK. Looking under the bed, he let out a blood curtailing scream. Janece remembers that event to this day and it brings lots of laughter to the room. Lloyd thought it to be one of his finer moments.
Lloyd participated in Cub Scouts. His father joined in on the father/son activities. They went on some camping outings up by Big Bear and attended local jamborees. Again making good memories.
One summer the family was able to take a 7 week vacation. Driving from California to Iowa and Missouri. They spent time with cousins on the farm; great-grandparents and grandparents in their rural town homes. Returning to California via Colorado; they made stops in Rocky Mt. National Park and Pikes Peak. In Utah they stopped by the Big Rock Candy Mt. that Beryl Ives sang about. This was sometime in the late 50's before Interstates. At that time it was always important to cross the desert at night and Tucumcari, New Mexico, was the planned destination. Lloyd was always talking about driving Route 66. In later years, he would search out small strips of Route 66 and he and Elaine would exit the Interstate to drive it again. Memories, aren't they great.
Lloyd grew up in the Methodist Church; Lakewood Community United Methodist Church. As a youth he participated in MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) and Dottie Creager was his youth director. Their group attended work camps in the California mountains. He took an interest into documenting the groups activities; for several years he took pictures and created scrapbooks. In 2007, Lloyd and Elaine returned to California and stopped in to see Lloyd's church, now called First United Methodist Church of Lakewood. One of the office staff showed them around and was able to pull out a couple of the scrapbooks that Lloyd had compiled in the mid 1960's. Books have always been of interest to Lloyd. In High School, he worked in the library; was part of Future Teachers; played violin in the orchestra; not the best choice for a relatively tone deaf person. His senior year he chaired the Homecoming Parade.
After graduating from Mayfair High School in 1966, Lloyd attended Cerritos College taking computer courses; another interest of his. Two years later, he enlisted in the Army. He went into the service while the family moved to Detroit, Michigan. He would later rejoin the family in Huntington, West Virginia. (His father's government job had transferred the family several times). Lloyd spent 3 years in the Army; including 1 year of duty in Vietnam. He was part of the One Hundred and First Airborne Division, Strike Force (the Screaming Eagles) in the northern part of Vietnam at Camp Eagle. His job was Supply Parts for the camp. There were a couple times his camp was hit by enemy fire; so he always had to have his helmet and rifle by his side. Returning to the states he was stationed at Ft. Carson, in Colorado Springs, for 18 months. While there he took square dance lessons at the Air Force Academy. Square dancing became part of his life and he enjoyed it greatly. For many years, it was not unusual for Lloyd and Elaine to be out dancing 4 or 5 times a week. In 1992, Lloyd and Elaine attended the National Square Dance Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Lloyd's parents were involved with some of the planning and his Dad was part of the agenda queuing a Round Dance for one of the sessions.
After the Army, Lloyd had filler jobs; he shelved books in a library and worked at a car dealership at the auto parts service counter; then saw a flier for positions with the FBI in Washington, DC. He EOD'd (entered on duty) June 26, 1972, to work in the civil files on a purging project of 3x5 index cards. At that time the civil files were located in Silver Springs, Maryland. That is where he met his future wife, Elaine. She had EOD'd the same day, worked on the same project and happened to live in the same apartment complex; just in a different building. He would search her out in the files and talk to her, much to her disgust . Eventually she came to like this guy and they eloped and were married March 19, 1973. in Raleigh, North Carolina, at the Wake County Court House. They continued driving south and spent a week honeymooning at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Later he learned their love story and elopement had become part of the orientation classes for new employees. At the time, the FBI trained within their ranks the art and science of fingerprinting. Lloyd and Elaine enrolled, becoming fingerprint technicians classifying and manually searching fingerprint cards; in both the criminal and civil files and filing those cards in the FBI's manual files. Today this training is available thru college courses. Back then it was only done in Washington, DC, at the FBI headquarters.
With his FBI training, Lloyd was able to secure a job with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in their computer room; maintaining the operation of the main frame computer. He held that job for 22 years. His supervisor was George Howard, longtime member of this church. Elaine was also able to secure a fingerprint position at CBI.
The move to Colorado was good. Lloyd enjoyed the mountains. When he tried to take his Chevy Vega over Mosquito Pass and got stuck; the Vega got traded for a 4x4 International Scout. He has owned a 4 wheel drive vehicle ever since. Many years were spent jeeping the mountains with the Mile Hi Jeep Club. At the same time Lloyd discovered camping. He started small with a 3 man pup tent; then moved to a 5 man tent; in which you could stand up inside. After one very wet summer of cooking in the rain; it was decided to purchase a pop-up camper. Many happy years were spent in the pop-up. In 1982, on their 9th wedding anniversary, Lloyd & Elaine purchased land on the west side of La Veta Pass, west of Walsenburg on Highway 160. It is part of Forbes Park and their little piece of heaven was named “Nine Bells”.
TV and movies was always part of Lloyd's leisure time. Being from Southern California, the Oscar's were an important event. After the nominations were announced, he planned so he could see all the movies up for Best Picture, Lead Actor and Actress and Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress. Then in front of the TV on Oscar night; he watched to see if his choices were the same as Hollywood. It was also important to watch the Rose Parade every New Year's Day. There was a specific protocol for this event; Sliced oranges covered with powdered sugar were served with undivided attention to the TV for pre-parade interviews, the parade and post parade reviews. One year his family was able to attend the parade in person. This was another important memory of his. Lloyd was also hooked on one soap opera – AS THE WORLD TURNS. He was a third generation fan following in the footsteps of his Grandma Gist and his Mother, Floriene. At the time he was working graveyard shifts and swing shifts; so this allowed him to faithfully watch all the goings on of the people of Oakdale. Many phone calls between his Grandma and his mother contained the subject, “Did you see what happened on the story today?” Many times we had to rush home from running errands so as not to miss the story!
Lloyd enjoyed traveling. Most all of the family relatives are located in California, Iowa, Missouri and Ohio; so Lloyd and Elaine were always going somewhere to visit them. They would include some sight seeing during these trips. Their biggest US trip was retracing their honeymoon. On their 10th wedding anniversary they drove 6,000 miles in 30 days. They left Colorado, stopping in Missouri to see Grandparents; in Tennessee saw Elvis's Graceland and toured Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg. In South Carolina, their honeymoon hotel was changing management so it was closed. It was fun to see it again and then stopped to visit 1st cousins in Georgia. In Charleston, South Carolina, went to Boone Hall Plantation, where parts of “Gone with the Wind” was filmed; toured Ft. Sumter and drove Daytona Beach before arriving at Walt Disney World. Returning home through New Orleans, they toured the Super dome and took a boat trip through the bayous. In Texas, they toured the battleship USS Texas; danced at Gilly's (made famous by the movie “Urban Cowboy”) in Pasadena and spent time with 2 Aunts, an Uncle and cousins. Went to Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands National Monument, with their final stop at the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
It took 13 years before Lloyd became a father. A baby does change your life; but Lloyd and Elaine were ready for it. Now it was time to do those father/son activities. The best one was driving to spring training camp in Arizona, to watch the Rockies. Eric has fond memories of that week; especially discovering the cactus that looks like a cotton ball, but does not feel like a cotton ball. Lloyd loved baseball; but Eric's love was soccer. Eric started playing soccer when he was 4 yrs old. Lloyd spent many weekends on the side lines cheering for Eric's team. Then in High School it was attending marching band competitions. Lloyd volunteered to chaperoned several band trips. Those were fun times. So many aspects of traveling had changed from Lloyd's days in High School. Railroading was another interest of Lloyd's that Eric enjoyed. Before light rail closed the crossings along Santa Fe; Lloyd would chase the trains with Eric; and sit at the crossings waving to the engineers to toot their horns. The Colorado Train Museum in Golden, was another favorite place to spend time. Although it never worked out for him to volunteer at the train museum; Lloyd had been a member for many years. He got his love of trains from his Grandpa Gist. Guy M. Gist, held many positions during his lifetime employment with the MKT Railroad; that's Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. It was also known as the Katy. Growing up, Lloyd's family was entrenched with Katy. He received his Lionel engine and tender, his first Christmas and each year after that received a new piece to add to his layout. His model train layout has many pieces of rolling stock with the Katy emblem. Lloyd even incorporated Katy into his E-mail address.
In 1996, Lloyd made a career change and started working for the Littleton Public Schools. He held several positions in the course of 11 years. He was playground supervisor at Peabody Elementary; then oversaw the computer lab at Littleton High School; ending with Campus Security at Arapahoe High School. Interacting with the students was a joy for him.
Lloyd grew up in the Methodist Church and attended here at Littleton regularly. For 10 years he was head usher. Some of those years were lean; so the entire family was pulled into help. He felt his greatest accomplishment was incorporating the acolytes in the collection of our gifts and offerings. He has held positions on the Worship Committee, Administrative Adult Council and Senior Adult Council. For several years he prepared the fliers announcing the upcoming activities for Senior Adult Council. Having Eric employed by this church has made him proud. As people talked to Lloyd, the conversation would go “Oh! you're Eric's Dad. We love and appreciate all he does here at the church.” That's one of those button popping moments to hear how Eric is doing.
In 2006, a once in a lifetime trip happened. Lloyd and Elaine became international travelers, when they joined the Hendry's on their 21 day tour to New Zealand and Sydney, Australia. Lloyd got motion sickness patches for behind his ears and was off. The thought never crossed their minds, “What if they don't work” They enjoyed the trip immensely; leaving Eric to celebrate his 20th birthday by himself; while they celebrated Elaine's birthday and their 33rd wedding anniversary. While in Australia, they were able to attend a single's club square dance in Sydney. Lloyd had worked diligently communicating over the internet to find a club dancing on our free night. To our amazement, the gentleman he had exchanged E-mails with; some 6 months earlier; happened to be at the dance. Lloyd was quite excited to say he was now an international dancer. Eric could have joined them on this international trip but he doesn't enjoy traveling. He has since become the designated house sitter.
In 2007, Lloyd retired from the State of Colorado with 31 years of service. His retirement party was Friday, April 27th; then on Monday, April 30th, he had surgery to remove 2 tiny bumps of melanoma skin cancer from his head. Tests showed they got it and no further action was taken. He was again planning trips. This time it was Hawaii. Lloyd and Elaine had talked about Hawaii for their 25th Wedding Anniversary and here it was 2013, approaching their 40th anniversary. It was time to do it. Eric wanted to see Hawaii, so as a family, we spent 7 days on the island of Oahu, celebrating Eric's birthday, Elaine's birthday (a few days prior to leaving) and their 40th Wedding Anniversary. This would be the last trip they would take together.

The year 2014, took life down a different path. Lloyd was very supportive during Elaine's 5 months of breast cancer and radiation treatment. Then just 2 weeks later on July 2nd , melanoma cancer re-appeared in the form of a brain tumor. It was removed successfully, then the melanoma appeared 90 days later in the gall bladder. During that 90 day period, his heart went into AFIB and he underwent an Ablation to fix the AFIB. Next he had one radiation treatment for the brain and also did immune infusions for the gall bladder. He bounced back each time until April 2015, when Radiation Necrosis (swelling in the brain surgical area) started him on a downward spiral. Steroids help brain swelling; for Lloyd they had a bad side effect. He started losing muscle strength in his legs. Stopping the steroids and doing Rehab worked on recovering most of the leg strength. By July, the Necrosis had returned to the brain, so more surgery was done to remove the mass that was causing pressure on the brain and more steroids were used. During a second round of Rehab, the bad effect of the steroids returned and he ended up back in the hospital.
July 31, 2015, Lloyd was released from the hospital and came home to live out his life in Home Hospice Care. He settled into a routine of Monday,Wednesday and Friday, receiving a bath. He developed a wonderful relationship with his CNA, Colleen. Lloyd looked forward to his bath time with her. He wasn't excited when she took a day or two off. Fortunately Colleen is very dedicated to her job at Denver Hospice. She took very few vacation days during the almost 3 years she spent with Lloyd. She also spent 2 hours every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with Lloyd while Elaine ran errands.
Lloyd also appreciated the faithful people who visited him. Many from this church, square dancers, relatives, neighbors and friends came. Sometimes the visits were short, especially when Lloyd would say “Thank you for coming”. That was his way of saying – I'm done and you can leave. This always bothered Elaine. Even with Lloyd's dismissals, everyone continued to keep coming. What dedication! Rev. Jeff was a steady figure coming to see Lloyd. He would read scripture and Lloyd always said “He reads good”. Elaine tried to supplement reading scripture but Lloyd would stop her, saying “You don't do it as good as Rev. Jeff”. Prior to Rev. Jeff''s appointment; Rev. Mary Beth visited regularly. They had good visits and Lloyd always asked her to sing for him. Elaine's religious contribution was devotions at breakfast and the evening meal. She also read the Littleton Independent newspaper so Lloyd could keep up with developments in the surrounding area. **A note here: Lloyd could no longer read or write. The brain tumor had affected that area of his brain.
Almost 3 years, is a long time in Hospice care. Only once did he leave the house for 1 week, checking into a nursing home so Elaine and Eric could travel to Topeka, Kansas. March of this year, Lloyd & Elaine celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. To make it special, Elaine had a small tiered wedding style cake ordered. It was a red velvet cake, which was Lloyd's favorite. Together in the house, the 3 Martins celebrated; eating cake and ice cream and singing “Happy Anniversary”. Lloyd's health, while in Hospice care, was fairly steady with small declines every so often. As time went on he was content to stay in bed and only come out of the bedroom to eat meals at the dining room table. This was his routine for the past year; stating every so often that he was ready to die. He got his wish on Saturday afternoon, May 19th . Just 3 days prior on Wednesday, he started to decline. By Friday, when Elaine asked him what was going on in his head; in a whisper, he struggled and said “Nothing to Say”. He passed away peacefully in his sleep with Elaine and Eric at his side.

He is survived by his wife Elaine; son Eric; his mother Floriene Martin; sister Janece Heis (Dennis); mother-in-law Virginia Allensworth; brother-in-law Stephen Lowry (Glenna);  one aunt Ernestine Martin; 2 nephews  Stephen John Lowry (Becky) and Timothy Lowry (Erica) ; many cousins and a host of friends
 

Farewell Lloyd.
Farewell loving husband; loving dad; beloved son; my warm hearted loving brother; my favorite and concerned brother-in-law; honorable son-in-law; BIG
and grand uncle; and Glenna says Farewell caring friend.

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