Roy L. Foens
Father Husband
Veteran WWII
Roy Foens was born on 28 February 1919 in Granite City, IL. He was one of 11 children. His mother was Nancy Johnson Foens and his father was John Foens. Being brought up in the St Louis Area, Roy was an avid Cardinals fan. John left when Roy was young and left his mother to raise the 11 kids. When his mother lost her eyesight, Roy and the other children went to foster care while she learned the skills to take care of the children. Because of this Roy only completed the eighth grade and left to help support the family.
Roy was a shoe repairman for a good part of his life and he was also a milkman for a while. He was the man that would pick up your milk and drop it off on your doorstep. He was a hard worker working from 0300 till 1100 hours working with the milk and then working even more at the shoe repair shop. He was very generous and would not always charge people to take care of their shoes if they could not afford it. When he decided that it was not profitable as his own business he went to work for others. 17 years before his death he worked at the Rock Island Arsenal as a sewing machine operator.
Roy got married in 1938 to Dorothy Wieland. When they met he was coming around a corner with a friend of his that was going to see Dorothy’s brother, Roy stopped when they got around the corner, saw her, then turned to his friend and said that is the women I will marry. They had five children, all girls. Once he left the service he decided that St Louis was not where he wanted to raise his family. In 1946 he moved to the Iowa City area and remained there for the rest of his life.
Roy was drafted into the Army in 1943. He did not talk about his service very much. During his service he spent time in the South Pacific, Philippines, New Guinea. One story about Roy is that he broke his leg while serving. He broke his leg playing baseball sliding into a base. He spent 21 months overseas. He was a very strong man.
Before his death at age 72 he was very angry at his body that he could not do the things that he could as a 20 year old, but he remained as active as possible and continued to help as many people as possible. He was always there for his kids no matter when they needed it.
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