J.C. Kirbys last month of life was a full one. He was a passenger in a B-17 bomber, saw one grandson graduate from mortuary school and another one race professionally. We talked for a good 30 minutes on Saturday and he said Ive had the best last month, Kevin Kirby said of his father, who died Sunday just as the sun was peeking in the windows. The elder Kirby, founder of J.C. Kirby and Son Funeral Chapels, died from complications related to diabetes. Hed struggled with the disease for some 40 years. But he went peaceful, Kevin Kirby said. Hes not in pain anymore. In addition to his battle with diabetes, J.C. Kirby lived through two open heart surgeries and other health problems. But that didnt stop him. He was a strong old man, Kevin Kirby said. He worked until the last day. The 77-year-old Kirby worked hard all of his life, having grown up on a tenant farm, milking cows and working in the garden. He also served in World War II, where he was a gunner on a B-17. Thats why Kevin Kirby treated him to a ride on a B-17 when it was in Bowling Green earlier this month. He was a soda jerk in a downtown grocery store when a customer suggested he would make a good undertaker, Kevin Kirby said. J.C. Kirby landed a job at the now-gone Satterfield, Akin and Dawson Funeral Home on College Street. He hitchhiked to mortuary school in Louisville, graduating in 1949. Eventually he, along with Carline Goodrum, was able to purchase Cliff B. Raymer Funeral Home on Broadway Avenue in 1962. A little more than a year later he bought out Goodrum, and they remained friends. Goodrum said he saw J.C. Kirby about six months ago at the airport in Austin, Texas, where both of them have daughters. He explained that the two came up with the idea to go into business together while watching their boys play Little League baseball. We each had assets to bring to it, Goodrum said. But Goodrum, not being a licensed director or embalmer, decided the funeral business wasnt for him. J.C. was a perfectionist and thats really what built the business, he said. Tim Ward, who now manages J.C. Kirby and Sons Broadway Chapel, worked briefly with the elder Kirby. One thing I noticed was his genuine care when he was involved in a funeral. He really cared about the people and wanted things to go right for those people, Ward said. Ward described him as a serious-type person, unless you were one-on-one and then he would joke with you. He remembers the time that J.C. Kirby came up with the idea of how Ward could make his grandson a huge Christmas tree. Ward bought a 20-foot-tall PVC pipe and the two of them drilled it to put in cross members where lights could hang. Then there was the time the two of them were on a coroners call J.C. Kirby was coroner for 28 years at a plane crash when Kirby suggested that a reporter who inched too close to the plane might just want to get back on the other side of the tape. J.C. Kirby retired in 1986 when Kevin purchased the funeral home. He made me buy it. I asked him how much and he said $1 million, Kevin Kirby said. He told me, No one gave it to me and I cant give it to you. He said, Youre my retirement. Kevin Kirby said its made him a better businessman. In his retirement, J.C. Kirby planted a walnut grove of 6,500 trees, farmed, wrote poetry, played music and did wood working. Hes made furniture for everyone in the family, Kevin Kirby said. Goodrum said he recently received a wooden checkerboard from J.C. Kirby. But Ward said it was J.C. Kirbys love and commitment to the community that will be missed. His funeral will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday at J.C. Kirby and Son Funeral Home, Lovers Lane Chapel, which was built by his son. Visitation will be from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. Kevin Kirby also is handling the funeral arrangements. Having handled hundreds of funerals for other families, he said doing this including wheeling his father out on a stretcher from the hospital was the least he could do for the man whose footsteps he is trying to fill. I told the rest of the family that I would handle it, Kevin Kirby said, because he and I had talked about what he wanted.