Obituary of Martin "Dale" Rouse

Martin Dale Rouse was born in Topeka, Kansas on June 28, 1945, but lived his childhood years with his father and two brothers on a farm in Richland, Kansas. He died February 28, 2016, at his home in Gilroy, California. He loved living on the farm and grew up milking cows and taking care of the farm animals. Since he was the oldest boy, he looked after his two younger brothers when his dad was working. Dale worked side by side with his dad when it came time to milk the cows and take care of the farm. When his dad died suddenly when Dale was 15, life as he knew it came to an end. He was lost without his dad, so he decided he could take care of himself when his mother took him and his two younger brothers to Wichita, Kansas. He could build a trailer at age 9 and figured out without a college education that he could build anything, without blueprints. Everything was in his head. In his adult years, he married at 19 and within five years had two children. Dale moved to California in 1974 and settled in the Southern California area. He manufactured, licensed and sold all types of trailers for a while. He managed and cooked in restaurants, was the foreman at a large poultry ranch, was a traveling salesman for Speer Cushion Company in Holyoke (along with his wife, Lorraine), was the foreman at a tire recycling company, dorve a cement truck, owned a furniture store in Holyoke in Ole Holyoke Square – there wasn’t anything Dale couldn’t do. He and Lorraine celebrated 34 years of marriage September 18, 2015. They met at a chicken ranch where they both worked in San Marcos, California, in 1978. Since their marriage in 1981, they visited all 50 states – 48 in an RV – and worked alongside each other. In 2002, the Rouses sold their home, bought an RV and took their lives to the road. Doctors discovered a cancerous tumor near the back of Dale’s throat in 2010 and told him he wouldn’t last another year. With sheer determination, along with more than 100 chemotherapy treatments and numerous other experimental treatments, he stretched his life another five and a half years. Close to five years ago, the Rouses landed a job in Gilroy when they visited See Grins RV, intent on buying an RV. They bought one but also walked away with jobs working in the business’s kitchen cooking hamburgers for customers. In between their travels, they continued to work for See Grins until last summer. Dale is survived by his wife, Lorraine; son, Marty; daughter, Felicia; sister, Connie Brandt and husband Bob Sr; three step-children, David Handzlik and wife Deborah, Todd Handzlik and wife Kristie and Jill Theriot; eight step-great-grandchildren; and one step-great-grandchild. Cremation was chosen. It was Dale’s wish to be buried next to his father in the cemetery in Wilsey, Kansas. Memorials have been designated for Vitas Innovative Hospice Care, 670 N. McCarthy Blvd., Ste 220, Milpitas, CA 95035. Condolences may be sent to Larraine Rouse, 650 Holloway Rd., Sp. 118, Gilroy, CA 95020.