Richard (Dick) William Ailor was born August 26, 1934, in Brookfield, Missouri, to Clarence Burton and Mabel Florence Ogle Ailor. He died peacefully at the age of 87 on July 25, 2022, in Oskaloosa, Kansas.

In early childhood, he lived for a time in Oak Grove Missouri, and briefly in Chicago, Illinois. He lived in Lawrence, Kansas in the 1940’s before his family moved to Eureka, Kansas. As a child he loved to work alongside his dad, Burton, and help him deliver gasoline for Standard Oil. Dick graduated from Eureka High School in 1952 having participated in band, football, and fast pitch softball. He married Elizabeth Ann Schaechtele in Eureka, Kansas, on December 29, 1957, they were married for just over 60 years. Together, they had two daughters: Lisa Ann in 1963 and Sarah Elizabeth in 1967.

After high school graduation, Dick enlisted in the Navy during the Korean War. Through his time in the Navy, he was fortunate to miss the action in Korea, but got to see the world. Among the places he traveled while in the Navy were San Diego, San Francisco, and Treasure Island in California. He sailed on the USS Mount. McKinley which took him to Japan, Italy, Greece, and many other seaports. Upon his honorable discharge from the Navy, he returned to Kansas and Ann. He worked in oil fields during the summer and attended Kansas State University, often commuting from Manhattan to Kansas City to be with Ann while she attended college at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dick also attended the University of Kansas and along with Ann was a life-time member of the KU Alumni Association. Ann and Dick made a home in Fairway, Kansas upon the completion of Ann’s Bachelor’s in Nursing degree (BSN). During their time in Fairway, Dick worked for Coca-Cola which is the job that would eventually bring him back to Lawrence, Kansas in the 1960’s. Dick was the manager of the Coke warehouse located at 6th and Connecticut in Lawrence. Although, Coca-Cola was not his life-time job, he and his family, to this day, have a loyalty to drinking Coke products. During the 1970’s, Dick and Ann owned the A & W Drive-in. He also worked for Dale Wiley Pontiac as the Assistant Service Manager. In the mid to late 1970’s, an opportunity arose for Dick to go back to his childhood roots of working in the gas and oil industry. He went to work for Becker Corporation out of Eldorado, Kansas as a dispatcher. It was during that time that he decided to purchase his first tractor-trailer, Freida the Fragile Freightliner, and lease on as a full-time truck driver. He delivered gas, oil and other liquid fuels in and around the central plains with occasional trips to all corners of the United States. When Becker Corporation sold to another company, Dick went to work for Groendyke Transport Inc, and he kept on trucking until his retirement in the mid 2000’s. He was the best driver anyone ever knew, and he had a brain that his daughters swear looked like a road map inside.

For many years, Dick, and Ann owned Morgan horses, so that their girls could show them. This offered them friendships with people from all over the Central Plains. Because of those friendships, after Dick was no longer hauling horses to horse shows, he and Ann continued to attend horse shows. They loved to take their granddaughter Whitney with them, and the trio was a staple at Morgan Horse shows for years. Ann and Dick went on many trips to warm places with their life-long college friends.

Dick spent his retirement years catering to Ann’s every need and providing care for his grandchildren. He was often seen driving around Lawrence running errands for Ann, running grandchildren places, or just shooting the square. It was a sad day when he was forced, against his will, to stop driving, as he was always happiest behind the wheel of some sort of vehicle. Whenever Lisa, Sarah or Sam, his grandson, took him anywhere in the last few years, there was a strict rule that you had to drive down Massachusetts street in Lawrence.

Dick is survived by his daughters Lisa Schmitt and Sarah Walters and her husband, Gary and children, Sam and Amelia, his brother, Ron Ailor and his wife, Mary, and Ron’s sons, Jason and Blake and their families, his sister-in-law Mary Lake and her children Lei Anh Russell and her family and Andrew Phillips and his family; . He was preceded in death by his wife, Ann, his parents; Lisa’s daughter, Whitney Van Dyke and his father and mother-in-law Bob and Alice Schaechtele. Dick loved his family more than anything, had a wicked sense of humor, was as ornery as could be and would do anything for anyone. He was lost after Ann died, and is finally where he wants to be, with her bickering and fussing, but loving her more than anything. He meant so much to so many people, he was loved and is missed.

A celebration of Dick's life will be held at 3:00 p.m. on August 26, 2022 at the First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont St, Lawrence, KS 66044, US

Send to someone

Share this obituary with others

https://everloved.com/life-of/richard-ailor/obituary/

Copy