Early OOIDA activist dies at age 81

November 22, 2021

Land Line Staff

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Franklin J. (Frank) Yager, Dade City, Fla., died Sept. 27, 2021. Yager was an early member of OOIDA and active supporter of the Association’s causes. During the Association’s fledgling years, he served on the OOIDA Board of Directors.

He was born in Newton, Ill., in 1939. Yager worked for the Illinois Central Railroad and served in the U.S. Army Reserves. In 1958, he moved to Florida. According to Yager’s family, he began driving trucks for Lykes Pasco in 1958, after his brother Ray won a card game that got Frank the job.

He founded Yager Bros. Trucking in 1965 with his brother Paul. Yager Bros. Trucking hauled produce from California to Florida for many years.

Yager was on the front lines of two major trucker strikes in 1975 and 1979. During that time he became involved with OOIDA, which was then a young association established to represent truckers.

In 1978 he started Sunshine Equipment Rental and in 1982 began salvaging Corvette parts as Sunshine Corvettes and sold those parts worldwide. When he retired from trucking in 2003, he began raising turkeys and other birds and cultivating fruit trees and vegetables, which he sold locally. Along with gardening and fishing, a favorite pastime was cruising the Carribean with his wife.

According to his daughter, CareyAnne, Yager suffered from a pulmonary disease and in September contracted the COVID-19 virus, which proved fatal. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Shirley; the couple’s three children, Frankie, CareyAnne and Scott; and four grandchildren. He is also survived by siblings Jeanne, Lorraine, Kenneth and Michael. He is preceded in death by his parents, Raymond and Gertrude Yager, his brothers Ray, Leroy (Corky), Paul, and his sister Kathleen.

The family celebrated Frank Yager’s life and honored his memory at the Dade City Garden Club on Oct. 9. LL