- Date Of Birth: February 21, 1929
- Date Of Death: August 22, 2020
- State: Idaho
For decades, Rodney Glauner, 91, has been predicting his own death. Yearly, on his birthday he would state to his family that they better enjoy it, because he wasn’t going to make it to the next one. Supposedly he only had “one more clean shirt”. Turns out that he was terrible at predictions, but last February, on his birthday, he was finally right– at some point he was bound to be. He passed away peacefully in his sleep on August 22, 2020. He’s finally going to be “pushing up daisies” like he expected long ago.
Rod was born on February 21, 1929 to Fredrick Glauner, a serious German with piercing blue eyes who thought that kids should be seen and not heard, and Manie “Mom” Durfee Glauner, a tiny, hilarious, woman who always carried a broom. Rod was a 13 pounder, but let’s not go into that. However, if you’ve ever been the object of one of his blunt wisecracks, blame it on Mom Glauner. She’s the one who blessed him with his sense of humor. She often told the story of his nightmarish childbirth, and somehow saw the humor of the experience that turned her hair white at 31 years old.
Although his childhood was probably serious and difficult, it was full of mischief. He once had a pet magpie that could talk, and he taught it to say “Rodney’s drowning!” Imagine his mother’s horror, and the laughter it has inspired since.
If you ever had the misfortune of being a passenger in his truck, you know that he didn’t like to slow down when he took a corner. He knew exactly how fast he could take every corner in Gooding County without dying– but just barely. The sheer terror it caused his passenger and other drivers in the vicinity filled him with glee. But perhaps he was really just a terrible driver. In either case, it made him happy to know the glorious mayhem left in his wake. His terrible driving even got passed down to the next generation. When one of his granddaughter’s failed a driver’s test, he asked her why she failed. “I nearly hit a pedestrian,” she said through sobs. “Well,” Rod said, “next time run over the damn sucker.”
Rodney was named after his father, Fred, but went by Rod, his middle name. He then named his son Rodney “Bruce” Glauner, who named his son Bruce “Cory” Glauner, who carried on the tradition with his first son Cory “Webb” Glauner. Glauner’s are a strange sort. They love a good joke, even if it’s on themselves.
He joined the Army just after high school.
Rod and Shirley eventually divorced and he married Loretta Morris Jones in 1981. He considered Loretta’s daughter, Connie Dixon, to be his fourth child. He was blessed with eleven grandchildren: Cory Glauner, Brooke Glauner Milner, Elisabeth Brown, Eric Hillis, Chris Brown, Becky Brown, and Chris Brock on the Glauner side, and Stephanie, Jeannette, Emily and Ryan on the Dixon side; then blessed with over 20 great-grandkids and counting. He taught many of his grandchildren their first cuss words, and was known to be their drinking buddies as stories abounded.
The last decade of his life was spent gardening, feeding the birds and the squirrels, sitting in the recliner looking at old family pictures, camping and fishing with his grandkids, and terrorizing other drivers on the road. A life well lived.
His family is so thankful to have been a part of his wild ride, and to have inherited some of the same irreverent sense of humor.
Love you, Grandpa.
