Life Story for
Roger Henry Weaver
Roger Henry Weaver, 72, of Hemet, CA, passed away on Wednesday, September 28, after a battle with heart and lung diseases. Known as “Papa Rog” to his grand- and step-grandchildren, and grand-nieces and nephews, Roger was born in 1944 in San Diego, CA. He grew up in the southwest, living in Arizona, New Mexico, and California. After earning an Engineering degree from Northern Arizona University, he began his career in Anaheim, CA, before settling in Ogden, UT where he worked for Rockwell, Boeing, and Honeywell, for 46 years. In 2004, he moved back to southern California, eventually retiring there. He married his first wife, Weldonna North, in 1965 and had two children, then got remarried to Ruby Holder in 1985 creating a combined family of seven children. Roger was a music lover all his life and learned to play the guitar as a teenager. His main interests were country and folk music, but when he discovered the “slack key” style of ukulele playing, Roger set down his guitar and picked up a ukulele. Though his favorite mode of transportation was the cruise ship, on which he travelled with his wife, Ruby, to the Caribbean, Alaska, and Europe, his favorite place to visit was the desert landscape of the southwest, specifically Jericho, in central Utah, where the highmountain desert neighbors a sand dune landscape. There, he and his family and friends would camp and ride motorcycles on trails through the scrub brush and juniper trees. At night around a campfire, with guitar in hand, accompanied by distant coyotes and buzzing insects, he would lead everyone in his favorite country and folk songs. This was for him, quoting John Denver, one of his favorite musicians, “almost heaven.” He was preceded in death by his daughter, Pamela, and his father, Henry. He is survived by his wife, Ruby; his mother, Elsie; his sisters, Sue Korff, Oretha Mennie (Larry), and Sandra Weaver; his children, Jennifer and Michael Weaver (Kathryn); his stepchildren, Angela Esposito Charles Esposito (Janet), Regina Christensen (Jason), Sarina Howard (Adam), and Anthony Esposito (Hilda); 3 grandchildren, 10 step grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.
