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Cochran Mortuary & Crematory - Wichita Obituary
Halfhill, Gary D.
69, loving father and grandfather, passed away Saturday January 20, 2018 at Kansas Medical Center in Andover, Kansas. He is survived by his daughter; Rebecca Gail (Jason) Turner, and his granddaughter; Lea Gail Turner. Private family services are planned at a later date.
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Tom Gregg
Gary and I were really good friends and hung out together whenever we could. Gary, as most know, was a tackle for North football and was a really large guy. It was always fun for us to drag Douglas in my Jaguar XKE roadster wearing long neck scarves with Gary's head about 6" above the windsheild, and the scarf trailing in the wind behind him. Noone gave us any trouble on Douglas cause Gary was a bit intimidating.
Gary and I took a trip to visit my aunt and uncle in southern Indiana, Orleans, which wasn't far from Louisville. The kids there would drag the highway between Mitchell and Paola Indiana with Orleans in the middle. We drove Gary's 428 Cobrajet Fairlane and were immediately a hit with the kids in Indiana. We pretty much took over the little towns in southern Indiana for a couple of weeks. The car had an 8-track tape deck and we absolutely wore out the first Steppenwolf tape listening to "Born To Be Wild" and "The Pusher"on that trip.
In 1969 Gary and I went out to Mel Hambelton Ford on N. Broadway to buy new cars. They had 2 Shelby GT500's , a couple of GT350's , and two Boss 429's Gary bought one of the GT500's, red , and I was going to buy a blue Boss 429. Of course we both needed co-signers because of our age ( banks were alot more strict back then) and once my dad looked at the Boss, he said no way. Gary had that GT500 for as long as I could remember. He worked for awhile at Alexander Lumber on N. Broadway and 19th, and then went to work for Hayes Forrest Products. In 1969 I joined the Navy and left Wichita. I didn't return until 1978 for about 6 yrs. and then moved to Salt Lake City in the mid eighties. Every single time I came back to visit in Wichita I tried to find Gary. I scoured the internet looking for him, his daughter Becky, and any other name I could come across. I found several addresses in the surrounding area and made tons of phone calls to no avail. It wasn't until I saw his obituary on this site that I finally knew he was still around for all those years that I hunted. I was very sad to learn that I had missed him. We could have laughed for days reliving our "good ole days."