Steve Palmer, a World War II veteran, spent many years fighting for and helping other veterans, including those in the Valley. Palmer died last week at age 88. (Courtesy photo)
Remember all those columns I wrote back in the early 2000s when our local veterans were fighting to keep their gym - their lifeline - open at Sepulveda VA, and they won the fight?
That was Steve Palmer.
Remember every year when I asked you for donations so many of our older local veterans living on a shoestring could afford to wave the flag again and go to the Golden Age Games - their Olympic Games - to bring us back more medals?
That was Steve Palmer.
Remember the columns on the World War II vet who would stop by Building 99 - long-term care - at the VA seven mornings a week to deliver a free copy of the Daily News to every bedridden veteran on his last stop in life? It was their only connection to the outside community.
That was Steve Palmer.
Remember the one on the guy who would deliver doughnuts and secondhand clothing he collected to veterans undergoing treatment for chemical dependency and mental illness? Then the guy would take what was left over to homeless vets sleeping in their cars outside the VA gates, waiting for sunrise so they could come back inside to have some place to be?
That was Steve Palmer.
Remember the guy in the wheelchair waving the flag at every rally to protest the VA turning over land deeded the government for veterans
care to private developers?That was Steve Palmer.
You couldn't miss him. He was everywhere a veteran needed a friend or a hand up. And now he is gone, at age 88, his ticker finally failing him.
Steve always knew that's the way he'd go. He just didn't know when and where.
When turned out to be last Friday morning, April 29, around 9 a.m. Where he was was with his friends in Building 99 - the last stop for some of our local veterans.
"He was only there for a few days, but it was where he wanted to be," says his son, Steven, 38. "With the people who knew him and loved him. It's like Dad had come full circle."
A memorial service for Steve will be held at 10 a.m. on May 10, at the Church on the Way, 14300 Sherman Way in Van Nuys.
"You know how people talk about someone after they pass away and say what a great guy he was?" says Bob Rosebrock, one of the key organizers of the ongoing fight to keep VA facilities strictly for veterans, not private development.
"People said that about Steve while he was still alive. He rarely missed a Sunday protest rally until recently when his health began to fail.
"Even then, he would call from the hospital to apologize for not being there. What a man."
Yes, he was. The last time I talked to Steve he asked me to mention in the column that the Golden Age Games were coming up again and some of the guys over at the VA could use a little help holding up their end of the travel costs. No problem, I told him.
I mentioned I was busy compiling a book of my favorite columns from 25 years - all of them about winners, like him.
Steve asked if I'd autograph a copy for him when it came out. I told him I was the one who should be asking for an autograph.
I never got a chance to give it to him. The book came out last Friday, the day he died. An autographed copy will be going to his family.
To Steve Palmer - the heart, soul, and conscience of Sepulveda VA.
We're going to miss you, pal.
Dennis McCarthy's column appears in the Los Angeles Daily News on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. dennis.mccarthy@dailynews.com.
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