Gerald D. "Jerry" Lane

Celebration of Life:

Gerald D. “Jerry” Lane, passed away on April 13, 2023, aged 83. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Geraldine “Geri” Lane; sons, Keith (Vonda) Lane, Kenneth Lane, Gregory Lane, and Richard (Mary) Lane; grandsons, Keaton (Megan) Lane of Apopka, FL and Tanner Lane of Vancouver, WA; granddaughters, Halie (Brendan) Wilson and Demi Lane of Pueblo; great-grandsons, Kieran and Colin Lane, Apopka, FL; step-grandson, Corey Heimbigner and step-great granddaughter, Clara Heimbigner, Vancouver, WA; and Elizabeth Mandl of Carpenteria, CA.
A Pueblo native, Jerry Lane was born on July 15, 1939, to parents Harold and Cora Lane. Jerry and older brother Gale grew up on the Eastside, and attended old Centennial High School, where Jerry met cheerleader and future wife Geri Blanc. He lettered in football, basketball, baseball, and mischief, and graduated in 1957.
Jerry and Geri married on February 15, 1958, and in quick succession had twin sons, Keith and Ken, then Greg, followed by Rich.
Jerry Lane’s greatest joy in life was watching his family grow up and succeed in their own lives. He was a proud and active follower of the athletic and academic activities of all his sons, traveling to cities far and wide in Colorado to follow them, their schools, and, later, the teams they coached. He was proud of his sons’ and daughters’-in-law post-graduate careers, achievements, and honors in teaching, coaching, business, politics and government.
Jerry was an equally proud and active follower of the lives of his four grandchildren, wherever they lived. He loved watching them grow up and reveled in their academic, dance, musical, military, and career talents.
Jerry loved taking the family and their German Shepherd Blackie on summer fishing and camping trips throughout Colorado, family ski trips in the winter, and epic family vacations by camping trailer around the country. Among their happiest adventures, Jerry and Geri had a lifelong love of trips to Las Vegas, beginning with their honeymoon, making annual gambling trips on their anniversary in their later years until it became too difficult for them to travel. Jerry and Geri also visited London, Paris, and Hawaii, the New England states, and made numerous vacation trips to the Washington, D.C. region.
After high school graduation, Jerry briefly attended Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, then Pueblo Junior College, now CSU-Pueblo, where he played basketball under legendary coach Harry Simmons.
Jerry worked for a short period for the Santa Fe Railroad, and then became an electrical lineman, a journeyman lineman for 45 years, achieving the recognition “234,000 volts barehanded”, climbing and stringing poles and repairing commercial and residential electrical utility lines for Pueblo’s local power companies. Realizing he needed more income to eventually send his sons to college, Jerry Lane also worked for many years for electrical construction companies, building and maintaining massive electrical power and transmission lines through the mountains and plains in the summer heat and frozen winters of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, sometimes months away from home. He returned to work at Pueblo’s succession of power companies, becoming a lineman supervisor, and retired in 2004. Up until his death, Jerry enjoyed Friday morning breakfasts with retired co-worker friends. Jerry was also a proud IBEW union member for over 63 years and sometime president of IBEW Local 667, where he helped negotiate work contracts and benefits for electrical workers that supported the great middle class of America. He volunteered his time and expertise in 1993 to help wire the multi-sport Rawlings Complex at USC, CSU-Pueblo, and helped install the lighting at Pueblo’s Riverwalk.
Jerry Lane was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Gale; and aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends who enriched his and his family’s lives.
Memorial service, 2 p.m. Thursday, April 20, 2023, in the Montgomery & Steward Chapel. Private interment, Mountain View Cemetery. Full obituary and online condolences, www.MontgomerySteward.com