Taken in 1949 when Jerry was 17
--perhaps high school Graduation.

In Memory

Of

Darrell Jerry Oaks

("Possum654")

1932 - 2002

Darrell Jerry Oaks a.k.a. Possum654,
was born January 10, 1932, Berks County, Pennsylvania
the son of Isaac Jeremiah Oaks and Helen Elizabeth Weidenhammer.
He died on August 10, 2002 in the Hospice Care Ward of Burt Fish Memorial Hospital,
New Smyrna Beach, FL., at the age of 70.
He will be cremated and his ashes scattered
over the graves of his parents in Reading, PA.

His parents, Isaac and Helen E. W. Oaks
are buried in the Charles Evans Cemetery,
Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania.

Jerry graduated from Pennsylvania State University,
and served a tour of duty in the military in Germany in the early 1950s..
Jerry worked for IBM in Washington, D. C. for some thirty years,
and upon his retirement moved to New Smyrna Beach, Florida in 1990.
He worked religiously on the genealogy of his maternal and paternal ancestors,
and was never too busy to look up information for his friends and acquaintances.
His research will be forwarded to the Berks County Historical Society.

He will be greatly missed.

The Story Tellers...

We are the chosen.

My feelings are in each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors.
To put flesh on their bones and make them live again,
to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.

To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead,
breathing life into all who have gone before.
We are the story tellers of the tribe.
All tribes have one.
We have been called as it were by our genes.

Those who have gone before cry out to us:
Tell our story.
So, we do.

In finding them, we somehow find ourselves.
How many graves have I stood before now and cried?
I have lost count.
How many times have I told the ancestors you have a
wonderful family you would be proud of us?
How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt
somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.

It goes beyond just documenting facts.
It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do?

It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds
and indifference and saying I can't let this happen.
The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
It goes to doing something about it.

It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish.
How they contributed to what we are today.

It goes to respecting their hardships and losses,
their never giving in or giving up,
their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family.

It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation.
It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us.
That we might be born who we are.
That we might remember them. So we do.

With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence,
because we are them and they are us.

So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family.
It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the
call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers.

That, is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what
calls those young and old to step up and put flesh on the bones.

(Author unknown)

Anyone interested in making Contributions
in Jerry's name the Historical Society Of Berks County
has been
suggested as a wonderful way to preserve
Jerry's Memory

at

 Historical Society of Berks County Library
940 Centre Avenue
Reading, PA 19601

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