Kenneth William Repple, Sr., 90, of Oldsmar, FL, passed away on Sunday, October 9, 2011 at home under the care of Suncoast Hospice.
Born in St. Louis, MO, he moved here from Chicago, IL in 1986 where he was a butcher and meat cutter for Oscar Meyer and Jewel Foods. He retired as owner and operator of Nordica Foods in Chicago after 24 years. He was a US Coast Guard veteran of WWII. He was a Chicago Cubs baseball and Bears football fan and played senior baseball with Three Score locally. He had a great sense of humor and enjoyed singing and dancing.
Kenneth was preceded in death by his son, Ronald, in 2006. Survivors include his wife of 69 years, Frieda; son, Kenneth (Elizabeth) Jr. of Naples, FL; sister, Virginia Schultz of Chicago; 7 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren.
Please sign the guestbook below.
Dad,we love you and will miss you.You will always be in our hearts.
Hi Grandpa Ken,
We love you and will miss you very much!! I know you are looking down on us.
Love,
Michelle, Brian, & Baby-to-be
Hello AF & UK. When I think about you I remember the many many times of being in your big big cars, coming from a day away at the lakes you would frequent. Running around all day swimming, eating, more swimming, more fun. Having to way for what seemed like hours and hours before we could go into the water after eating. At the eand of the day we would ALL pile into your white and orange Oldsmobile, all of us right next to each other, me starting to fall asleep and hearing the hum of the tires on the road. That sound seemed to always put me to sleep. I loved it. More to come as the thougths emerge.
A.F & U.K., hello. I’m remembering when you still had the store on Nordica and Uncle Kenneth lost quite a bit of weight. That’s when I started calling him, “skinny”. Hello skinny, I would say. Uncle Kenneth would smile. I love you.
Marilyn
Grandpa, I just keep remembering all of the good times we had with you and grandma, all of the vacations and places you took us. Memories of and at the store, you singing in the car and you asking if the music was okay. We always said yes. I am so glad that you had good times and were able to spend a lot of time with my girls too.
And very happy that you knew you were going to be a great, great, grandpa. You will always be in all of our hearts and have only happy memories of you. Love, Cheryl
Dear Grandpa, There are so many happy memories, I don’t know where to begin. All of the fun vacations we took. One of my favorite memories of you is you singing in the car and letting us choose the song. I loved your voice. Then, there was Grandma telling you which way to go and you saying, “Fritz, I know where I’m going!” I always remembered how friendly you were to anyone you ran into. I loved that about you. Most of all Grandpa, you could always make me laugh! I don’t ever remember not having a fun time being with you. I used to love going to the store on Saturdays and standing there watching you cut up the meat in the back. You were a generous Grandpa and I felt very loved by you. All of these happy memories and you will be alive in my heart until I see you again. I love you. Always and forever, Lizzy XO
I cherish the memories that we had.
When I was about eight or nine years-old, I received my first cassette tape recorder replete with a single earphone, a handheld microphone, and three blank cassette tapes. I was very eager to record someone, something, anything. Grampa was my first willing human taker in my endeavors as an amateur recording engineer. After a few brief interview questions, Grampa sang into the mic, “When the moon comes over the mountain, that’s the day I promise to come back to you.” As I aged, I would listen to our recorded creation over the years and found it to be emotionally soothing. To this day, I still sing his lyrics and remember our recording session. And, sometimes, Grampa’s song finds its way from my lips in the moments when I need it most.
Kenneth and Frieda, I think of times we all went smelting after you closed the store. The two of you, Josie and Ted, Marie and Ed. We had so much fun together. Remember when we would sneak beer on to the beach and drink it while smelting. We were so bad!!! We would go to the Pork Chop restaurant, play cards, we had decades of good times. I hold lots and lots of wonderful memories.
Love, Marie
Verbalized by Marie Triner
Typed by Marilyn
Frieda and Kenneth, I remember many things we’ve done over the decades. On a cruise that the two of you attended along with Marie and Ed, Ted and myself, we were awakened around 3 in the morning by a deck hand saying to put on our life jackets and go immedialetly topside. The boyz were sleeping in one room and us Zak sisters had our own room. Marie spent precious time looking around for something. We said to her “come Marie, we have to go” Marie said ” I can’t find my bra”. We said “the hell with your bra, we have to go.” “I can’t go until I find it”. Pinned inside the infamous bra was the money that was to support her and Ed’s vacation. Marie found her bra put it on and we went topside. When we got up there there were gazillions of stars that I had never before seen anything like it. Many people were also screaming from fear. It turned out to be a great trip. I’ll never forget those wonderful times we had, they were numerous. I’ll always love you, Josie. Verbalized by: Josie Maslo Typed by: Marilyn