Donald James Maguire, of St. Louis, Missouri passed away peacefully at his home on October 27, 2023. He was 86 years old.
Don was born to Thelma Maguire (nee Gordon) and Joseph Maguire, on March 29, 1937, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a longtime employee of F. W. Clemens Construction Co., beginning at the age of 18. He started his own business, D. J. Maguire Construction Co. which he ran for thirteen years before his retirement. Using his talent, he constructed a truck camper that created many wonderful memories of visiting the national and state parks with his family. He loved the family poker games, Halloween parties, white elephant exchanges, looking for that valuable coin, discussing the paranormal, and the challenge of catching a larger fish than his wife.
Don is survived by the wife he adored for 68 years, Delores (nee Baier); he was a loving father of five children: Deborah (Mike) Lydon, Denise (Ron) Waller, Donald Maguire (deceased), Dennis Maguire, and Diana (Dan) Lemmon-Barry; caring grandfather of thirteen grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandchild. He is survived by his sisters Evelyn Lageman, Donna Ortner, and Cathy (Bob) Putz. He was predeceased by his parents, Thelma and Joseph, and brothers, Clifford Blankenship and John Maguire.
He will be remembered for his generosity of helping others and his sense of humor.
SERVICES: Viewing at Kutis Funeral Home Affton Chapel (10151 Gravois Rd. 63123) on Wednesday, November 1st from 4:00 – 8:00 PM. Mass of Christian burial will be Thursday, November 2nd at 10:00 AM at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church (3140 Meramec St. 63118). Interment immediately following at Gatewood Gardens Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
Please accept my condolences for the loss of Uncle Don. He was a great uncle to me and appreciate all he did for our family though out the years. I always enjoyed visiting Uncle Don and Aunt Lolly and the cousins. God bless.
Jerome
Don was such a wonderful guy. He worked very diligently and treated the upkeep on our home like it was his own. He was very honest and willing to attend to our needs promptly. We have a homemade ornament for our Christmas tree that he gave us. Prayers and blessings!
Sending our love to all of you as you celebrate his wonderful life and legacy. He has influenced so many with his kindness and love.
Don Maguire; husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, and friend. He has left all of us with wonderful memories and these are a few of ours.
Growing up we remember Dad telling us that we needed to be home when the street lights turned on and if we hadn’t, we would hear the familiar whistle he blew using the fingers of his right hand. Later his grandson would remember him placing that hand on the top of his stomach with the other hand and twiddle his thumbs. He was our taxi driver: driving my brothers to and from hockey practice & games, driving his future son-in-law and daughter home from Junior Achievement meetings, or travelling to southern Missouri and driving right back to St. Louis for a grandson’s every other weekend visits. He loved driving and after building the truck camper (which was the talk of the neighborhood much like Noah building his ark), many of our vacations were spent travelling 4000 miles looking at mountains, valleys, deserts, canyons, gorges, geysers, sea all done in 2 weeks! One fond memory of my sister’s is of sitting with dad on a bench and looking at the beauty of Bear Lake in Estes Park, Colorado. It seems like yesterday. The night before leaving on one of those fortnight long trips, dad had the truck engine disassembled all the way down to the engine block. We should have never had a doubt that it would be reassembled and working perfectly in time for our next day departure. Some trips were closer like to Lake Wappapello. Once a pontoon boat was rented there and filled with grandchildren. While fishing, one grandson caught a fish and was so excited, he swung around and hit his sister in the back with the fish. That caused her to throw her little pink fishing pole into the lake. My father without hesitation dove headfirst into the lake and saved it! Another boat memory is when dad put his new bass boat into the lake and it slowly starting sinking because he had forgotten to put in the plug. Traveling to places slowed down because their little piece of heaven was bought called the Farm located in Belleview, Missouri. More memories were created like sharpshooting contests but dad bested us all by shooting a hole through a quarter right in the center of George Washington’s head. Hunting also took place on the Farm but dad had lost the desire to hunt squirrel, rabbit, and deer as he did in his early years, and told others that one day they would soon be like him, just wanting to sit and enjoy watching them. Dad started collecting coins around the age of 17, when he got older, he would hide them throughout the house. For some grandchildren this would turn into a game of treasure hunt to try and find his newest hiding spot. Once they found pennies from the floor to the top of the metal leg of his bed frame. We had a pool table at the house and Dad would pretend to be Minnesota Fats. Mom remembers when he met his future son-in-law for the first time it was over that pool table and how a pool trick shown him using the ball rack went wrong and whacked him the nose. He surprisingly retained his composure. He would love to cook, throwing everything he could find into his concoction. He is remembered by one of his granddaughters for showing her how to cook the perfect eggs. Others remember his super thin hamburgers cooked in a cast iron skillet, and hobo lunch which is spaghetti, tomatoes, & hamburger. For some of us that is where our love of cooking began. Dad would love to listen to the radio show Coast to Coast AM, where listeners could call in about their paranormal happenings, nothing was unbelievable. One night he gave flashlights to the grandchildren, then had them sit out in the field so they could shine their lights into the sky trying to contact the aliens. He topped off the evening with playing sounds from a deep cave which he called Sounds of Hell. No one slept that night!
He loved the holidays: Halloween was one of his favorites when mom and dad hosted a yearly Costume Party. Costumes were to be made, and they always had the best ones such as Miss Piggy and Kermit, Monkey and organ grinder, Frankenstein and his Bride are to name a few. Through the years he would also, carve pumpkins into very elaborate jack-0-lanterns of his own designs. But his favorite holiday was Christmas. His creativity would appear again with the painting of the front windows (Mom painted one and he did the other-there would be some boasting and discussion on whose was better). He would also make the same paper Moravian Stars that his mother made and would show some of us how to make them. They were not as perfect as his but we were proud of what we made with him. Dad always did his shopping for mom the day before Christmas. And he bought many gifts which took her quite a while to unwrap. More gifts meant there was sure to be one she really wanted! As the family grew, more gifts under the tree grew too. He loved telling the grandchildren that Santa didn’t come and then unveil the bounty followed by chaos. One Christmas held a special memory. As the family was gathered In our living room, a stranger rang the doorbell and said he saw our house and thought it was very bright and warm and inviting. My father invited him in and sat him with the rest of us. Gave him food and something to drink. The man listened to our stories and then said good bye. We felt like we just had a visit from Jesus.
Dad had a sense of humor sometimes too much for my mom. He would answer the phone by saying Gus’s Nut House or pretending he didn’t know who called by calling them Amatha, or acting like he wasn’t thrilled that they called at all. When my mother had a bowling ball dropped on her foot by one of her grandsons, dad quickly said “time to call the toe truck”. He loved to tell the story about some men living on the Mississippi River, and during its flood stage, they saw a live fat pig floating by. They rescued it, kept the pig, and feed it a case of Switzer Licorice they found floating down the river too. Soon after the pig had piglets. One of his funniest stories is how he found a little dog and took it to his daughter’s house, convinced the granddaughters that it looked just like the dog he had as a little boy. That they should keep it and name the dog Bosco just like he named his dog Bosco. Not until many years later, after Bosco went to heaven, did he reveal that Bosco looked nothing like his Aunt Kate’s dog! Part of his humor was teasing, and that joined with his love of tv would result in a little back and forth banter with a grandson about which Price is Right model was their girlfriend.
My father was one of the kindest people when it came to helping others. It didn’t matter if you were family, friend or stranger. If you needed him, he was there and if offered compensation, he quickly refused. Once a family needed their sanitation pipe fixed but it was after hours for plumbers. He assessed the situation, bought the pipe, and fixed it. They were flushing again within an hour. Speaking to dad’s sister, she reminisced how he would shoo her 5 children home when they were out too late, always looked out for her needs, and even drank her coffee filled with grounds. This week a neighbor offering his condolences told us how dad was always there for him, fixing his storm door and changing his locks. Dad was a master of many talents and always happy to help those that needed his help.
Our father loved and protected us, especially his wife of 68 years, the love of his life. He always shared the story of how they met. In my mother’s words: We both were young and crazy, Our lives were just a scheme, The only way to make it, was for us to stay a team.