Stephenson Tales

The Final Curtain

It is hard to believe, but my parents, Jim Bob Stephenson and Lucy Chase Stephenson, have both cast off this mortal coil. My father actually sent me Mom's obituary shortly after she died in March 2011 and suggested it might make a logical addition to the site. I kept it to load, but had trouble making myself do it. Then two years and one week after Mom died, Dad died in March 2013. Suddenly I had two obituaries to put on the site. My siblings and Dad and I wrote Mom's obituary, Dad wrote his own before he died, but he did send it to all of us for our review and feedback. Losing my parents was hard. And I simply couldn't bring myself to put their final, recap stories on this site that housed so much of their life and laughter. Then this summer, 2015, Harper House had to be demolished. My younger sister Toni inherited the house, and she and her husband Gary had hoped to restore it. But the deeper they got into the problems and things that needed to be completely redone, the more they realized it could not be salvaged. So the hard decision was made to take it down. And in its place they would raise Harper House, Version 2. It will sit on the same footprint as the original; it will have the same white and green color scheme outside; it will have the amazing view of the lake out front; but there will be improvements - full height ceilings in the upstairs, a real bathroom upstairs, real closets in the bedrooms (what a concept!!), and the plumbing, electric, and construction will all be up to current construction codes. My eldest sister Lucky was the only one of the six of who could be there when the home of our childhood summers came down. She took several videos to share with the rest of us. And we wanted to share them with all of you who may have known our family, visited Harper House, loved our parents, or just want to see the astonishing skill of the excavator driver.

Lucy Chase Obituary

Jim Bob Obituary

Harper House Demolition Videos:

  1. The excavator arrives
  2. The excavator is placed for work
  3. The Boone Room comes down and the neighbors begin to gather to watch
  4. The neighbors watching
  5. More the neighbors coming and watching
  6. The washing machine comes out for salvage
  7. The audience to the show
  8. The excavator reaches into the basement
  9. The first filled dumpster leaves, the excavator pulls out two stumps, Charlie Barr
  10. The back half of the house comes down
  11. Half a house, looking like a big cutaway doll house
  12. Visiting with Charlie B.
  13. Pulling salvage out of the debris pile
  14. A piece of the old piano goes to salvage
  15. Clearing debris from the area
  16. Front half of the house comes down
  17. Circling the debris pile - what can YOU identify?!?
  18. The excavator removes a BIG stump
  19. Clearing more debris
  20. The end, house is down, view of the lake
That's all folks.

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