Roy Allen Horn, longtime resident of Vilas, passed away Tuesday, November 22, 2011 in Denver at Swedish Medical Center after a short illness. He was 72. Roy was born in Foster, Oklahoma on May 28, 1939 to Mart and Estell Horn. When he was eight years old, Roy moved to Baca County Colorado with his parents and two sisters. He spent the rest of his childhood around Campo and Vilas and attended the Vilas School until the 8th grade when he decided he had enough schooling and quit. After this, he spent most of his time on the family farm south of Vilas helping his dad farm and milk cows, even though milking was never one of his favorite things to do. Throughout his teenage years he worked on several different jobs, one of which was helping his father and brothers custom harvest many farms around the area. He even decided to become a Country Western songwriter. In his short career as a songwriter, he wrote and had one song recorded, "Wild Senorita". He was sent a tape of the song, but before his career got started the tape disappeared and was never seen nor heard of again. Roy moved to Kansas for a few years where he worked in a trailer house factory. During one of his travels to Kansas, he married, and from that marriage came one daughter, Delsie Turner of Kansas and one son, Donny of Vilas.
After returning to Colorado, he went to work with his father and brother setting up machinery at the John Deere dealership in Walsh. Most of his adult life was spent working on the pipeline. He was very well known for his knowledge and skills by the many companies he worked for. He traveled around a lot during the forty to forty five years that he dedicated to operating a ditching machine, until a few years ago when he had to retire because of his health.
Over the last few years he and his son took up the hobby of buying, restoring, and selling cars.
Roy was "one of a kind". He had his own ideas about things and was very opinionated. Once his mind was made up, there was no changing it.
In the 80's he went video camera crazy. He purchased a camera and filmed ALL family get-togethers. You had to be careful what you said about anything or anybody because he was usually around the corner catching it all on film, grinning from ear to ear at everything he was capturing on tape. At one time or another, we all had to bribe him about some of those videos so he would not show them to everyone.
Roy is survived by his daughter Delsie Turner of Ellinwood, Kansas, son Donny Horn of Vilas, his mother Estell of Vilas, six grandchildren, Tiffany, Joshua, Takoda, Roy, Delilah and Melissa, three great-grandchildren, two sisters, Ella Howard of Vilas, Carlene (Tracy) Smith of Brush, four brothers, James (Virginia) of Wichita, Kansas, Robert (Debbie) of Rocky Ford, Boyd of Cripple Creek and David (Terrie) of Vilas, numerous nieces, nephews, and other relatives.
He was preceded in death by his father, Mart Horn, one sister, Janice, his grandparents Cleve and Maude Horn and Homer and Donnie Roberson. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, November 29 at 1:30 pm at the School Gym in Vilas.