Roger Edgerton

If you wanted a man to encourage the van, Or harass the foe from the
rear,” Oh no, that was Abdul-a-bul-bul-Amir. If you wanted a man to
sing the songs from the 20”s and 30”s, you had only to shout for Roger
Edgerton and his ukulele. “Huge multitudes came, so great was the
fame”… Oh no, that was Abdul, but Roger’s strong uke was the basic
rhythm section for the fiddlers of the Glendessary Jam of Santa
Barbara where they play every Wednesday evening in Alice Keck Park and
have achieved local fame equal to Abdul’s and even to the traditional
music groups of the East. Roger learned the songs and strums from his
uncle, Val, and his mom, Toni, and served as an expert of that music
for the last fifty years to the delight of the family of cousins at
Thanksgiving and Christmas just as Uncle Val and Mom did in his
childhood.

Never deterred, Roger was a man who knew what he wanted to do. In the
late 50’s he joined the Army Air Corp and went to Japan as a
weatherman in the Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. There he met Fujie
who became his wife and the mother of his three children. Roger said
at their 50th wedding anniversary “Marriage is easy when you are
married to Fujie.” They established their home in the Culver
City/Venice area where Roger grew up and the children went to Venice
high School as he did. He taught his two boys, Jack and Tom,
gymnastics which he learned from his father and they became the strong
men they are today. Miki, his daughter, became an excellent
businesswoman and help to her parents with IT and financial affairs.

Roger was always interested in sailboats and they became a sailing family.
Their boats, the Mikichan and Sunrise, were moored in Marina del Rey,
Oxnard, and Ventura and sailed into Paradise Cove in Malibu and many
of the Channel Islands on their trips up and down the coast seeking
prizes in the local races. Roger mused about putting Mud Lake on the
transom of the Sunrise because it was the name of their home port
before it was glamorized as Marina del Rey in the 1950’s. When he put
the kids to bed at night if he didn’t say “I love you better than a
red balloon” he would say “Don’t forget to tie up the dinghy.”

After retiring from the movie business as a Teamster, Roger, and Fujie
built a home in Leilani Estates near Hilo, Hawaii where they lived for
ten years, Fujie growing anthuriums and Roger becoming an expert on
palms. Coming back to the Mainland they settled with Fujie’s garden
filling their corner of Ventura. Their backyard avocados still feed
the whole extended family.

Roger’s innate mechanical knowledge is visible in the sparkling garage
that greets passers-by and guests. His polished fixtures, powerful
power tools and walls decorated with perfectly aligned hand tools of
every description attest to his enjoyment of building useful items for
his home, the homes of his relatives, and the the sailboats that
always needed maintenance. The Sunrise, a Newport 30, boasted a wood
burning pot belly stove of appropriate size, thanks to Roger. After
leaving the Sandwich Islands and searching for another boat, Roger
found the Sunrise for sale again with the pot belly still intact. Many
a Wet Wednesday race was won by the Sunrise and her three captains
Roger, Jack and Tom.

Roger was the kingpin of a close family that gathered every
Thanksgiving and Christmas with cousins for Roger’s songs and Fujie’s
good cooking. Nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren have
increased its size.

Roger, tired of the pain that accompanies aging, was the last of his
circle of friends from high school, so he moved on. He was not a
religious man, but he could recite by heart, the poem he learned in
seventh grade, “Abou ben Adhem” by Leigh Hunt, that spoke of his love
of his fellow man. Miki remembers him reciting the poem by memory to
every new grandchild that came along. His two sisters, Joyce Ball of
Santa Ynez and Sylvelin Edgerton of Goleta, join those who remember
him fondly and strive to emulate his sense of humor and his acceptance
of life.