George Jay Hawley
April 3, 1955 - March 18, 2020
On March 18, 2020, in the early hours of the morning, George Jay Hawley departed from his bed by the window in his wonderful home, the Snohomish Chalet/Delta Rehab, for parts unknown.
George lived an extraordinarily adventuresome and full life from his birth near Warsaw, MO, in 1955 until a motorcycle accident on Mothers’ Day, 1979, in Kansas City, MO, through which he sustained a traumatic brain injury. The following nine years his parents Dave and Thorne Hawley oversaw his entertainment, well-being and surgeries with energetic determination, assisted by the extended family and helpers. In 1988, George relocated to the Snohomish Chalet in Snohomish, WA, near Seattle where his sister Harriett Morton and family live. There he has appreciated the Chalet's loving care, shared laughs and frequent smiles generated by his final word of “well…” delivered with endless intonations. George’s exploits of his first 24 years will soon be shared through an ebook, a link to which will appear on this website, once the coronavirus ceases to interrupt the production of it! That ebook will also provide insight into his continued extraordinary life in a wheelchair with very limited language, during which his important contribution to the world consisted of brightening other people’s lives.
George is survived by his brother Charles Gray Hawley of Denver, CO and his sister Harriett Hawley Morton of Mercer Island, WA, along with many nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, scores of interesting cousins and friends everywhere who felt like family. David and Thorne Hawley both found primary joy in adding to his lifestyle before Dave’s death in 1995 and Thorne’s in 2007. Big brother Roger departed this crowd in 2016.
We hope to organize an online celebration of his life, to be determined and announced via this obituary.
Donations to acknowledge his passing would be gratefully appreciated by the Snohomish Chalet through:
Delta Foundation, 1711 Terrace, Snohomish, WA 98290
Mark your calendars to check every couple of weeks to find the ebook as well as the online celebration.
The following is an excellent description from a cousin George’s age, written this past week after hearing of George’s passing. Come back for the ebook for more of his adventures—and videos of George talking!
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George J
George J, Wow, what can I say?! He was unique, athletic, fun, talented, so cool, and MY cousin! He collected unique friends, and hobbies. He came up with different things to do. Like using his folks’ video camera to create a movie where little tablets magically became people. There, of course, was a whole story behind that.
He was an impressive athlete. All his movements were smooth, and fluid. He was agile, and (to me) had unbelievable balance. He could have been a Walenda. He liked his unicycle, so high you had to climb a ladder to get on it. I learned at an early age I couldn’t follow George J unless he wanted me to. I have poor balance, and got myself into a few tough situations because I tried. He’d jump over a bad place in a trail, climb up a rock ledge, or walk a skinny log across a creek. Not me. Though, when he wanted he could get me to do stuff. Like high tail it across the nature trail through Georgene’s and into the side entrance of the cave, at night, to scare the others who had left earlier. For the most part I could trust George J, but he was a tease. I’m not prissy and have handled my share of snakes, turtles, frogs etc. I did learn to respect them for what they are when George J told me his pet box turtle didn’t bite. Held his hand in front of the turtle and nothing, but when I did it, it clamped down on the skin between my thumb and forefinger. Davey was able to pry the jaw open and it hardly left a mark. Just the tip of the turtle’s mouth had broken the skin, and probably wouldn’t have done that if I hadn’t dangled him from my hand.
Starting 6th grade George started school with me, sometimes in the same class. He quickly became cool. And even elevated himself to super cool. I had plenty of friends, but I was never cool. We have lots of family that were cool in school but he was super cool. He was always doing things that could get himself in to trouble, but would manage to get away unharmed. At 14 he and his friend John Jenkins borrowed John’s parent’s car. They didn’t get past Meyer’s Circle before wiping out all the bushes around half the circle, and breaking the axel on the car. They immediately abandoned the car, though John did get in trouble for it. George repelled down the side of the then Alameda Plaza. Got caught but oh so cool. He frustrated the janitors but thrilled the students by shutting himself in the guys’ bathroom and painting his trucking character murals on the wall. He would slip out the window shimmy up the wall to the roof and escape. Oh, so very cool!! He could play any stringed instrument. Even if he had never played it before, he could figure it out. He would get together with anybody that wanted and jam. Summer at the Lake of the Ozarks with Jimmy, Charlie, and George J jamming in the evening is one of my favorite memories. Drifting in the boat under a full moon, nothing like it! Like I said talented and super cool.
After high school George took off around the world, and then traveled around the US on his antique BMW. George J liked the lighter bike because he could do crazy dangerous tricks with them. He used to tell me crazy wonderful scary stories about his travels. My senior year at MU he started in a music program, and moved into an apartment a couple blocks from mine. He told me the difference between a violin and a fiddle was that you tucked the violin under your chin, and rested the fiddle on your arm or shoulder. He never got used to tucking it under his chin. He always had an interesting group of people that would come by his place. Archie, I think that was his name was a frequent visitor. A great big redhead that kept his bullwhip on the dash of his truck. He looked and appeared a great deal more menacing then he really was. He treated me fine, and taught me how to crack that bullwhip.
Sometime along the way George J started calling me Sweet Caet, not cool Caet. Some of our classmates were amazed that I was his cousin. I always figured it was his oh so cool adventurous personality, when I was relatively quiet. After his accident, when we were at a family function, he signaled that he wanted me to come closer, I took his hand and he called me Sweet Caet. I knew then that he still remembered, and the connection was still there.
I have so many memories of him tumbling through my mind. I had to write down some of them.
Love to all my family, Sweet Caet
FUNERAL INFORMATION
We hope to organize an online celebration of his life, to be determined and announced via this obituary.
Please check back for further details soon.
DONATIONS
Donations to acknowledge his passing would be gratefully appreciated by the Snohomish Chalet through:
Delta Foundation
1711 Terrace
Snohomish, WA 98290