Jay Shoemaker (1925?-2020)
Jay Shoemaker died August 4, 2020
“On Tuesday, August 4th, Jay passed away exactly how he wanted, at home with no pain, in his sleep, with his family around him and his cat Annie on the bed. Near his passing He was on drugs to help his breathing. One night I saw him using his hands to turn the pages and use tweezers. It was unmistakable. He loved life and has a great one. He loved people and charmed everyone he met. He made the most of it for 95 years.” ...Susan Donnelly
Jay was a long time member of the Ventura County Philatelic Society and served as autioneer for many years. More recently he attended meetings with his daughter Susan. He was known for his words of encouragement to other collectors in their course in stamp collecting and his work with the VENPEX show held at the old Esplanade shopping center. He will be missed.
He survived by Survived by daughter Susan Donnelly, grandchildren Chloe Donnelly and Noah Krage
No funeral is planned and he will be cremated and his ashes thrown at sea.
Note: I have learn of Jay death, but I know very few details. Please add your comments below. L.M.Evans-de Violini
I’m “passing on” this comment from Frosty so that it will be included here:
Hi All,
I didn’t know Jay as long as Tom, Bill, Lois, the Webers, the Oelschlagers, and many others. But I have known him for a number of years. I knew him to be a Gentleman and a friend. I knew him as a dedicated philatelist. He collected and he helped others to collect. He exhibited and taught other how to exhibit. He was a great auctioneer for the club. One of his lesser collecting interests was in “four-bar” U. S. hand-stamp cancels. As a dealer I would get thousands of old letters to sort through and process and I would save out four-bars to give Jay. In return, he gave me covers and stuff that didn’t fit his collecting interests. Jay gave his “extra” stamps to many members of the VCPS. Since the pandemic, I have accumulated a stack 4-bars to give to Jay. If Susan could use them to go with his 4-bar collection, they are hers. I was fascinated by Jay’s stories of his early days working for the railroad in New Mexico. I gave him some 4-bars at one meeting which included a cover from Nebraska to New Mexico back in the day. It turned out to be from his mother written to his father. Jay and friends from his Vetco days had a poker club with members from Ventura and Ojai. In turn, Jay hosted poker nights at his home. As some of the poker group members moved out of the area, died, or became unable to continue participating, he would invite friends to join the group. I was fortunate to be accepted into the group and spent many happy evenings of poker. Jay was a good poker player and won more often than not. I was fortunate to know Jay and will miss him.
Frosty.
Jay Shoemaker will be missed by all of us. Jay was the oldest member of the Ventura County Philatelic Society and the last of the Lifetime members. He loved promoting stamp collecting! He helped greet people at our Ventura County Fair exhibits for 25 years. He always asked them “Are you a stamp collector?” If they said no he would hand them a packet of stamps and say “Now you are!” Ken Weber made a model of the Railroad Box Car that Jay lived in in New Mexico for Ventura County Fair.
Jay used his artistic talents to promote stamp collecting. His signature is on many early VENPEX covers with the cancels he created. He also designed our Youth Stamp Fair passport and carved in old wine corks our cancels for each station. He sat on the Cachet Table at the event for many years.
Jay worked for VETCO and had the same job that my Uncle Arnie had in Texas. They communicated and finally met in person at one of our Ventura County Philatelic Society meetings. My Uncle Arnie started me with stamp collecting in the early 1950’s.
Ventura County Philatelic Society will miss his exhibits, programs and enthusiasm for stamp collecting!
Thank you Sheri