Carey Michael Shepard

Public service announcement to the men and the boys! It is safe to let your wives and girlfriends out unattended as Mike Shepard has finally landed in the greenest of pastures on the other side of the fence! Mike flirted his final wink with a twinkle on May 30, 2025 and in a rare move, went home alone to pass peacefully in his sleep, in the home his Daddy built on his beloved family farm. Born January 25th, 1944 in Ybor City, Mike was an early charmer and was quickly adopted by Carl and Lummie Shepard and raised on his family farm in Flat Creek, Florida. A natural born inventor, Mike’s dad gave him full rein to take apart tractor engines and rebuild into jalopies. By the age of 14 he was winning drag races with his cousins and friends on Flat Creek Road in his home-built race car, charming their way into dates by offering the ladies a ride. Smart as a whip with the mind of an engineer, Mike was not studious at school - B’s are for balance - but was a very quick study. Always looking for new ways to shock and awe, he scored the highest senior placement test score in the state of Florida his senior year. So when his farming father insisted he go to college, Mike did not let studies interfere with his college education and promptly flunked out of FSU. Chipola Junior College with his best buds as roommates seemed an easier path to success and rip-roaring, co-ed fun with Chipola’s nursing students and drama department actresses. With his flair for debonair he was cast as the lead role in “The Miracle Worker” where he met his first wife, Terry Kenworthy, when she was cast as his leading lady. He transferred to follow her back to FSU where he eventually graduated with a degree in industrial engineering and as Brigade Commander of the ROTC. He was commissioned into the U.S. Army as a 2nd lieutenant in December 1967 and proceeded to go to every training school that might delay his assignment to Vietnam; earned his Ranger Tab at Ft. Benning, graduating at 200lbs with a 28” waist. He was fit and ready for Air Defense Artillery school in Fort Bliss and a short stint at a Nike anti-aircraft missile battery in Rhode Island before shipping out to the 725th Maintenance Battalion in Cu Chi Vietnam in 1970. As the company commander of a mobile combat equipment repair team, Capt. Shepard was tasked with repairing broken vehicles and artillery in forward operating bases. A perfect fit for a farm boy from humid North Florida who knew how to make copper wire out of a penny, Mike could turn two broken Deuce and a Halfs into three that would run. Broken equipment is removed from the Army inventory and Mike’s frankensteined vehicles turned into valuable trade material to wrangle equipment his infantry troops needed on the front. And the occasional case of Budweiser didn’t hurt morale, either. Returning from Vietnam Mike realized stateside Army’s regulations, paperwork, over-bearing commanding officers weren’t for him so he traded fatigues for suits and began his most natural-born-role as the consummate travelling salesman. Shaking hands, remembering names and charming corporate buyers into high end Caterpillar engines with Yancey Brothers in Atlanta, he was a top-producing salesman for several years before leaving the rat-race and moving his family home to try his hand at the family farm. Cattle and hogs weren’t chatty enough customers, so it wasn’t long before he was back on the tiny-two-laned roads of South Ga and North FL meeting undertakers and consoling grieving widows, selling caskets for Higdon Casket Company. This was a not so obvious segue into his longest running career as the one-manned Mike Shepard Realty brokerage in West Gadsden County. For 20+ years Mike happily justified talking to everyone he met because, “They all live in a house!”. During these years he met his second wife, Sara Golinveaux. Yet again his tinkering skills got him the girl as they built a solar powered homestead and lived off the grid for a decade. When it was time for a change back to single life he settled back in at his beloved family farm for a little bit of real estating, some ultra-light flying on his backyard grass airstrip, many motorcycle adventures visiting his kids and friends and a whole lot of flirting with the women he’d meet while running the local KOA campground. When the opportunity arose, he and a friend bought JAM Foods gas station in Greensboro, for a few more years of a literal revolving door of new friends and girlfriends! In his early 60’s, the siren call of salt water and mermaids became too much to resist and he bought his dream sailboat and floated around the waterways and streets (and bars) of Apalachicola. Selling ads for The Real Estate Book was a gateway into the offices of well-heeled women and it was his personal mission to make them all smile. He met his third wife, Linda Suarez - tinkering yet again- while repairing her sister’s broken coffee machine on a stop at Café Con Leche. They had a few years of many saltwater adventures, sailing, delivering boats, and managing a waterfront Airbnb in Islamorada. His final round of single life brought Mike back to Apalachicola and his Flat Creek farm and he’d bounce back and forth between lovely ladies, fishing, and puttering around the farm checking on pine trees and ponds. He captained a cleanup boat during the oil spill of 2010, drove a tug boat for a Port St. Joe coal yard and loved assisting the Apalachicola Riverkeepers with their annual river trek or any other boat driving needed - have Captain’s license, will travel! In his twilight years, Mike did what he wanted, where he wanted, with whomever made him laugh and not work too hard. He traded motorcycles for electric bikes and slowed down to the speed of his 1931Model A Ford, still hooking the ladies with horsepower. He found the best lunch in town at the Holy Family Senior Center in Apalachicola where he realized he was still just a youngster. An ongoing bout with Afib gave his heart some physical stutters, but didn’t slow down his love for flirting with alllll the pretty nurses who were keeping him healthy. Mike lived his life by saying YES to every adventure, smiling the biggest in every room, and always asking the girl for a date. He remembered everyone’s names, their kids, who their mama was, and could tiptoe out of any sort of trouble with a wink and a grin. He was prouder of his kids than anything he’d every done and would tell you ALL about their adventures and achievements, you didn’t even have to ask! In his own words, Mike’s only regret in life is there are still people out there he hasn’t met yet - we sure hope Saint Peter has earplugs! Mike was preceded in death by parents; Carl and Lummie Shepard and is survived by the “absolute best kids in the world”, Jennifer Golinveaux (Tonya), Grayson Shepard (Lindsay), David Shepard (Blue), Shelley Shepard (Rex), Sophia Alsop (Saro), grandchildren; Harrison and Henry Golinveaux, Eila Alsop-Crone, and step-grandsons Pike and Reed Wipperfurth and Weston Bockelman. Three ex-wives and about 372 ex-girlfriends have also outlasted him, most of whom remember him with a smile and some will tell you they just talked to him a couple of weeks ago and had plans to meet him for lunch soon. Mike said to save your donations for bail money and boats and instead of flowers, buy a beer for that new friend down the bar that you haven’t met yet. “It’s not the money, it’s not the cars, it’s not the motorcycles, it’s not the places… It’s the PEOPLE that make your life. And being able to remember them. This is a memory that I’ll cherish.” -Mike Shepard, at his 75th birthday, January 25th, 2019. Toast Godspeed to our beloved legend with his family and friends at Mike’s Celebration of Life, 2pm Saturday June 28th, 2025 at the Apalachicola Yacht Club, 170 Water Street, Apalachicola, FL.

Carey Michael Shepard

January 25, 1944 - May 30, 2025