Rural postman in Colorado’s North Fork Valley for 60 years, has died
When Molly galloped through the headlights in the driveway, Patricia Shaffer knew something was wrong. The spaniel didn’t jump into her car but turned and ran back to the dark house.
There in the backyard, collapsed by the woodsplitter and the backhoe, was Schaffer’s dad, Emory Townsend. He was 94.
“I kept saying ‘Oh no, no, come back,” Shaffer said.
They had plans to visit his great-great grandchildren — twins, a boy named for Emory and girl named for Beebe, his wife of 72 years — in Parker for Christmas. The family had just bought him a recording device so he could capture his vibrant stories spanning more than 80 years in the North Fork Valley, more than 60 of which he spent delivering mail to rural outposts.
So many stories, recalled so vividly. The three-week drive with his family from their dust-ravaged farm on the plains to Paonia in the early 1930s, eating eggs laid by chickens strapped to the side of their homemade camper. Visiting Hiroshima mere weeks after the U.S. leveled the Japanese city with an atomic bomb. Delivering mail and riding horses in the shadow of the jagged Ragged Mountains. Raising kids and adventuring with his beloved Beebe, who died two years ago in August.
Read the full story at The Denver Post.
DENVER, CO – MARCH 20: Emory Townsend, 93, stops for a lunch break with his dog Molly while delivering the mail on June 20, 2017 on his route from the Somerset, CO post office. After 60 years of delivering mailÐand many other jobsÐTownsend says that it is more of a vacation than a job.(Photo by Gabriel Scarlett/The Denver Post)
