LAYTON, Donis McKee

Birth: Feb. 25, 1936 Virginia, USA Death: Jan. 6, 2012 Arizona, USA [Edit Dates] age: 75 yrs 10 mos 10 days ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Donis McKee Layton, Senior Master Sergeant (Ret.) of the U.S. Air Force, passed away in the early hours of the morning on January 6, 2012. Think kindly on him and please join our family in remembering him as a good man, a good husband, and a good father. My dad grew up in Hot Springs, Virginia, the only son of Donnie and Mabel Layton. He had four sisters whom he loved dearly: Delmar, Anita, Ernie, and Jodi, and the five of them would do anything for each other. Family and friends were important to my dad and the only thing he expected was for us to treat each other with love and dignity and to be there if someone needed you. Dad, Donis, Buddy, Don, Homer, Sarge, Chief, Home Brew, Mr.Homer, my dad was called a lot of different things by a lot of different people, but no matter what you called him he was the same simple man underneath the surface. Dad wasn't perfect, and he had that famous Layton stubborn streak and he could do his fair share of grumbling, but I'd say the one thing that truly marked him was he treated everyone as an equal, which is no mean feat for a boy who grew up poor in a segregated town in Virginia. He didn't judge a person based on what those around him thought; he didn't care how much money they had or what their skin color or religion was – instead, he judged people individually on their character. He thought nothing about shagging fly balls for the local black baseball team for a quarter or when he was about thirteen, about walking 10 miles one way with a black friend in the mistaken belief they could watch a movie together in a different town. He said he was a bit naïve and thought it was only his town that was segregated. When the manager wouldn't let them sit together, my dad gave him a few choice words and then they walked the 10 miles back home. Dad was always pulling for the underdog, because he frequently was the underdog, and he was never shy in telling someone when he thought they were in the wrong. Dad would literally give you the shirt of his back if you needed it. Growing up, his family didn't have a lot of money, but as a boy, he once took some of his old toys to give to the children of a family that was so poor they didn't even have enough to celebrate Christmas. Sometimes people took advantage of his willingness to help out, but he never let that stop him the next time someone needed his help. After my mom died, dad liked to hang out at the gas station up the road and talk to the guys who worked there. When the car of one of the guys broke down, my dad decided to loan him my mom's car. When I asked him if he really knew the guy well enough to do that, my dad told me the guy really needed the car and my dad was willing to take the chance to help him out because in the end, it was just a car and what's a car compared to a person? Ten years later, when my dad fell ill and couldn't go in for his coffee anymore, the guys in the gas station heard about it, and every day, that same man my father helped out all those years ago would offer me free coffee to take to my dad. When he was young, my dad wanted to get out and see the world, so he left home to join the Navy when he was eighteen. Nanny Layton didn't believe that he would do it, but one of his sisters loaned him five dollars to get to Roanoke with his four buddies so they could enlist. Somewhere along the way, the five of them ended up in the Air Force instead and he went to New York for basic training. Eventually he was shipped over to England where a friend introduced him to my mom Mary at a pub or dance. Sometime that night, someone stole my mom's purse, so my dad bought her a bus ticket, and then he offered to escort her on the bus ride home. She turned him down (apparently my Irish granddad wasn't fond of Yanks at the time) but he went with her anyway and as they say, the rest is history. She was the love of his life and when she died in 2000, it devastated him and he never really got over it. People told him he needed to find someone else to be with but as he told me "I already had the perfect woman. Why would I want anyone else?" And as my mom never ceased to tell me: "You have a father in a million." Mom and Dad had three kids, me, my sister Bridget, and our younger brother Kevin, of whom they were very proud. I shared a birthday with my dad, which always made it special though a little problematic when dad would fill out my medical and school forms and put my birthday down as February 25th, 1936. "That's one old kid" was a phrase that was not strange to my ears. It's going to be odd from here on out whenever February 25th rolls around. Dad did a great job as a father and he now has two beautiful and well-behaved grandchildren, Little Mary, who is named after my mom, and Santi, who were the apple of his eye and who are both a testament to the job that my dad and my mom did in raising my sister. My dad put in 28 years in the military serving this country. He wasn't a financial genius and he never would have made a killing on Wall Street or have become a business tycoon because he didn't believe in taking advantage of others. He just wanted to be fair and for people to treat him fairly in return and I'm proud of the man my dad was. At 5' 5" in his prime, he was a little guy, and I towered over him by age thirteen, but to me, he will always be a giant. Humanity would be in a lot better shape if people were as decent and honest as my father was. Dad, mom was right, you were a father in a million, and we'll miss you dearly. - Sean Donis Layton Posted by: Mariposa Gardens Memorial Park & Funeral Home January 2012