Joseph "Sam" Samuel Creecy's Obituary
Sam Creecy died peacefully in Tallahassee on March 31, 2023, in the loving care of his wife, Janne. His parents, Joe and Helen Creecy, had passed away years ago, and he leaves behind his children, Karyn Lyn Tapley of Pensacola and Lesley Ryan Creecy of Tallahassee. Sam and Janne did not have children, but loved their cats. They had 12 of them over the years, but Sam’s favorites were Pippin, Buddy and Scruffy. Now, of all the cats, only Gracie is left to keep Janne company.
Sam grew up in Texarkana, Texas and his family moved to the Fort Myers area when he was seven years old. Sam was proud of his service in the United States Air Force. In the Vietnam era, he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan as an electronics specialist. He developed a love for radio and small device engineering, and came to Tallahassee to work at DataMaxx, a local computer engineering company. There he met Janne, and in spite of his transfer to another company, they kept up communication and eventually were married in Tallahassee on May 25, 1991—32 years ago. They enjoyed travel with family to England and Scotland and by themselves to Italy and other places in Europe. They bought property and built a house together in Havana, Florida. In recent years, Sam had renewed his interest in ham radio, and spent time talking with people across the country and the world, using antennas that he strung through the trees at the Havana homestead.
Sam and Janne joined Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 2006, where they both enjoyed a more traditional worship service, with Janne often playing flute and Sam visiting with friends. In 2020, Sam was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a bone marrow disease that causes the bones, body, and mind to gradually deteriorate over time. As the disease progressed, Janne took over all the driving and the management of his care. Through ancestry DNA studies, Sam found some long-lost relatives. Janne took him to Arkansas to meet some of them, including Dawne Reynolds, a double first cousin and her daughter, Missy Sims Bass.
The last few months were more and more painful for Sam, and he couldn’t think clearly. That did not keep him from going with son Ryan to see the World War II planes at the Tallahassee airport in February. But after that, he didn’t rouse himself from his easy chair very much. In the last couple of weeks, Janne had some help from Big Bend Hospice. Eventually Sam was transferred to the Dozier Hospice House to get the pain under control. After visits from Karen, Ryan, and Janne’s friends Michelle and Heather, Sam died at 1:30 in the afternoon of March 31, finally at rest.
A visitation for family and friends will be held at the Lifesong Chapel in Quincy, 20 S. Duval St., Quincy, FL, from 6-8:00 PM on Thursday, April 6, 2023. Interment with military honors will be at 10:00 AM at the Tallahassee National Cemetery on Friday, April 7th. A memorial service will follow at 11:00 AM at Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 814 N. Gadsden St., Tallahassee, FL.
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