Published: December 28, 2007 10:50 pm            

Somerset retiree honors veterans’ funerals

SOMERSET — Paul Yancey spent the morning hanging around Maple City Tire in Somerset, chatting with mechanics and offering customers rides to their homes or offices while their tires were being changed.

Later, he walked to his home beside the business, quickly changed into his military uniform and participated in the color guard at a veteran’s funeral.

“Most of the time,” the humble 78-year-old Somerset man said, “I don’t know the people. When I do, it becomes emotional.”

Yancey, a retired laundry manager from state hospitals in Somerset and Canonsburg, Washington County, spends his retirement looking out for others.

When he isn’t taking part in military funerals, the judge advocate at Somerset VFW Post 554 is volunteering a hand to help Ron Flickinger, owner of Maple City Tire.

“He’s a real nice guy and a good neighbor,” Flickinger said.

“He helps run the place once in a while when we go on vacation. He checks on the place and makes sure nobody breaks in.”

A lifelong Somerset resident, Yancey’s father operated Somerset County Laundry on Fuller Street from 1941 until the Laundromat closed in 1965.

“That’s where I got my experience in order to work for the state,” Yancey said.

He spent 23 years as laundry manager at the old Western Center in Canonsburg, then four more in the same capacity at Somerset State Hospital before retiring in 1992.

He and his wife of 52 years, Rosetta, raised two daughters, Susan and Paula, and a special-needs son, Robin. Susan works for Head Start in Shippensburg; Paula is a special-education teacher in Newark, N.J.; and Robin is at home.

“When I worked in Canonsburg, I stayed over there during the week,” he said. “My wife basically raised the kids. I can’t take credit for that.”

Rosetta Yancey said her husband is “generous in everything he does.”

“He takes the brighter side all the time,” she said.

An Air Force veteran stationed mostly in Britain from 1951 to 1955, Yancey has been an officer at the VFW since 1990.

Along with participating in the color guard, he is a member of the organization’s Military Order of the Cooties.

“Paul is very humble, but he can be outgoing,” said Ron Stairs, commander of the Somerset VFW. “He’s a lot of fun. He’s easy to talk to, and makes friends quickly.”

Of the 78 military funerals the honor guard has participated in this year, Yancey has taken part in most of them, Stairs said.

“He’s very dependable,” he said.

At funerals, the color guard has a prayer service for veterans, plays taps and fires three rifle volleys in tribute.

“There’s so many guys in the honor guard that do the same, not just Paul,” Rosetta Yancey said. “I think they all enjoy it, and they’re all veterans.”

Yancey, an avid fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates, said he doesn’t have any hobbies.

“When I had the time to hunt, fish or golf, I didn’t have the money,” he said. “Now that I can squeeze out the money for it, I don’t have the desire to do it anymore.”

        

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