Ralph Leroy Turner
1932-2008
Ralph was a truck driver by trade having worked for various employers including Connors Bros. and Arnold Hatt Construction as well as being employed by Coastal Transport as a wharf agent. In recent years, Ralph enjoyed socializing with friends and helping others. Following his retirement Ralph took up barbering as a hobby having a few selected clients as well as occasionally at the Fundy Nursing Home in Blacks Harbour.
Resting at the Wesleyan Church Blacks Harbour from where the service will be held on Saturday at 2:00 pm. The interment will be held at the St. George Rural Cemetery in the Spring. Visiting at the church on Thursday from 7-9 and on Friday from 2-4 and 7-9 pm. In lieu of flowers donations to the NB Heart & Stroke Foundation or to a charity of the donor’s choice would be appreciated by the family. Arrangements in the care of the St. George Funeral Home & Crematorium (755-3533) 26 Portage Street, St. George NB (www.stgeorgefh.ca)
Trucker put family first
Mike Mullen
Telegraph-Journal
Published Thursday February 28th, 2008
Appeared on page C8
BLACKS HARBOUR - Retired truck driver and family man Ralph Turner was the kind of guy who would "give you the shirt off his back," says his good friend John Brennan.
"I knew Ralph all my life. He was an awfully good person," Brennan said Wednesday. "If we had to go to Saint John to the hospital, he would take our car and drive us up. He would do anything for anybody and never ask for a cent in return. That's how good he was. I can't say enough good things about him.
"Everybody knew him," he added. "He was well-liked, not just in (Blacks Harbour), but everywhere he went."
Turner, who had lost one leg to diabetes in recent years, was about to lose a second when he died at the Saint John Regional Hospital on Feb. 20. He was 75.
Just 14 when he went to work at Connors Bros. Ltd.'s old No. 1 sardine factory here, he continued to work there until he took a job as a wharf agent for Coastal Transport in the 1970s.
He then went to work as a truck driver for Arnold Hatt Construction, retiring around 1990.
In retirement, he enjoyed socializing with friends such as Brennan down at the local Freshmart, and helping others. He took up barbering as a hobby, cutting the hair of a half-dozen selected clients for five bucks apiece. On occasion, he would also clip the hair of local nursing home residents for free.
His wife of 55 years, Marie (Justason) remembers him as an easy-going, hard-working and kindly soul who put his family first.
"You couldn't find a nicer person to talk to," she said.
Born on Nov. 13, 1932, in Caithness, near St. George, Ralph Leroy Turner was one of eight children - five boys and three girls - of the late John and Carrie (Holland) Turner.
Besides his wife, his survivors include one son, Steven Turner of Saint John; one daughter, Alda Turner of Pennfield; one sister, Hazel Johnson of Blacks Harbour; one granddaughter, Misty Gray of Edmonton; and two great-grandsons, Ethan and Hunter.
Marie, a native of Blacks Harbour, said she was packing sardines for Connors Bros. in 1948 when she first met the handsome young man she married on Sept. 19, 1952, at her mother's home.
Turner was not only a fine husband and father, she said, but in later years doted on their great-grandson, Ethan, who lived with them for five years until his mother moved away three years ago. Ethan, now nine, used to follow him around like a shadow.
"Ralph just thought there was nobody like him," said Marie. "He was just so contented when Ethan was here."
Turner's hobbies included hunting, fishing, puttering around in his garage and painting by numbers.
He also liked to go on country drives in his Plymouth Voyageur van which, said Marie, she used to tell him was his "baby."
Turner not only washed it continuously, she said, "(but) he kept the motor clean. Any vehicle he ever had and traded in, they would say nobody else ever traded in a vehicle with a motor as clean as his."