PARIS — The Maine Veterans’ Home announces that Roy Lurvey is Veteran of the Month for January.

Lurvey lived with his parents, Ida and Merle, and a younger sister, Beverly, at the family home in Locke Mills village in Greenwood. When he was 7, he started taking clarinet lessons and later performed on local radio station WCOV. He graduated from Gould Academy in Bethel in 1947.

Lurvey enlisted in the U.S. Navy in November 1947. He attended the U.S. Naval School of Music at Anacostia Naval Receiving Station in Washington, D.C., and played clarinet for the Navy band.

He served on the USS Boxer during assignments in California, Hawaii, Japan and Korea. For his service, he received the National Defense Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, China Service Medal, United Nations Medal and the Korean Service Medal.

Upon his discharge from the military in 1954, he drove trucks for Merrill Transport in Portland. For four years, beginning in 1964, he drove tanker trucks hauling the winter oil supply up Mt. Washington for the Channel 8 towers.

Lurvey drove trucks for 48 years and accumulated 2.25 million accident-free miles.

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He met his wife, Mary Elizabeth, while attending high school. They married in December 1949 and had three sons and three daughters. They have 17 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren. The couple spent more than 63 years together before she passed away.

Lurvey sang and played the saxophone every Saturday at the Buxton Grange Hall, sang at his church’s choir, played with the Fanfare Band in Poland and shared his joy of singing with his family at all his children’s weddings.

He enjoyed yearly family trips to Old Orchard and camping with his wife, including at Shore Hills Campground in Boothbay.

Lurvey came to the Maine Veterans’ Home in May 2016.

Seaman Roy Lurvey served in the U.S. Navy from 1947-1954.

Roy Lurvey is Veteran of the Month for January at the Maine Veterans’ Home in Paris.

 


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