CATCHING UP WITH
Retired BJ printer Sid Sprague
Retired printer Sid Sprague, who lives in Loveland, Colorado, is 88 years old but doing pretty well although treatments for his prostate problems keeps him “pretty tired.”
Sid has been married for 17 years to
his second wife Nancy, who is from Canton. She was neighbor and friend to Sid’s
first wife, Sandra. After Sandy passed away, Sid and Nancy married and moved in
2005 from Pawleys Island, South Carolina to Loveland.
They’ve been back to the Carolinas 3
times since.
Sid plans to visit his daughter in
Columbus in September.
Nancy’s sister moved from the Carolinas
to Virginia.
Sid’s granddaughter lives in
Connecticut with her husband.
In the
1990s Sid joined the late Dick Latshaw and the late Harold McElroy, also BJ
retirees, in Pawleys Island. They all lived on the same street, which is only three blocks
long. It was BJ south.
Harold and wife Linda joined Dick and wife Pat in Hawaii
in 2011 for the Latshaws’ 50th wedding anniversary.
When Sandra passed away and Sid and
Nancy married they moved to Colorado after a hurricane dropped a tree on Sid’s
house. Sid had had enough of hurricanes so they vamoosed out West.
Sid’s daughter, Suzanne Sprague
Rutherford, lives in Costa Mesa, which is 37 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Sid’s son, Jeffrey Sprague, lives in Greenwich Township, on the southwest tip
of Connecticut. Another son, Steve, passed away in Middleburg, Virginia at the
age of 38 in 2010.
Sid and I used to run into each other often at Nicky’s
Place on Front Street in Cuyahoga Falls, where we both lived at the time, long
after we both were retired. Nicky’s was a Greek restaurant in the first
building next to the current Falls concert venue at Front and Broad.
Sid is among the 45 retired BJ printers who benefitted
from the successful healthcare lawsuit that the late Dave White filed against
the BJ that restored retirement day medical coverage.
I piggybacked on Dave’s lawsuit by filing on behalf of
retired BJ Guild newsroom members but unfortunately only 5 of us qualified
because of the different language in the retirement-day letters. The lawsuit
has saved me about $80,000 in reimbursement and restored healthcare
benefits. Thank you, Chandra Law Firm in Cleveland . . . and the late Dave
White, who wrote a $2,500 check on a Florida beach to get the ball
rolling. Dave's widow, BJ composing retiree Gina White, still lives in the
Sarasota area.
Sid hasn’t heard from his BJ friends in
years, he said, other than me. If you would like to phone Sid and catch up on his
life and your life his phone number is (970) 613-1914.
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