Don G. London

Don London, at the age of 80, passed peacefully on the morning of January 31, 2024 in Carlsbad, NM. In our mind’s eye it is as if he rested comfortably through the long night and was up at the crack of dawn. We spent the morning in the field, hunting dove, it was a good morning.  The boys had finished cleaning the birds, and some of you may have a few more than a legal limit (you know who you are).  Birds are in the bucket, motorized wheel chair has been loaded.  As we come down Kerr Hill he is sitting in the passenger seat with Smokey sitting on his lap as Don takes his last breath in this bird hunt we call life. 

Donald Glenn London was born to TL & Frankie London on the 21st day of February 1943 and his older brother, Troy, was born 1941.  It is said the TL London family came in two litters.  Troy and Don were born in the early 1940s, Steve and Rhonda were born in the 1950s.

He was introduced to the world of hunting at an early age, his father gave him is first 22 single shot rifle at the age of 10 and he could hit the eye of a cotton tail rabbit with an uncanny consistency.  We grew up hunting rabbits, dove, quail, duck and deer and Don enjoyed the hunt right up to his last year.

Don attended school in Carlsbad up to the age of about 16 or 17.  Then he attended school only when he didn’t have something better to do.  On March 14, 1960, after many long discussions with his father about the necessity of a high school education, he enlisted in the Army.

He served his country as a combat engineer in Korea and later at Fort Carson Colorado where he met and fell in love with Leah.  They were married in 1964.  They lived, loved, and cared for one another until her passing in 2011.

In 1965 he was honorably discharged from the Army, he and Leah moved to Carlsbad and Don went to work for IMC potash.  He worked there until a strike then they moved to Fort Worth TX.  There he worked for General Dynamic until they had a lay-off.  He called Pop and said they were moving back to Carlsbad.  Pop asked him if he had a job lined up and Don said no, but we are moving back to Carlsbad anyway saying “if I’m going to starve to death, I’ll do it in Carlsbad.” He lived there rest of his days, and by the labor of his hands and the sweat of his brow, they did not starve to death, but instead he and Leah prospered.

He first worked for the City of Carlsbad and later began a career at PCA alongside his dad and younger brother, Steve. It didn’t take Don long to make an exceptional PCA miner operator and soon he began his electrical apprenticeship.  The Londons had many good years at PCA and enjoyed the people and the work.  Later he worked for Mississippi Chemical until he retired.

In his later years Don had trouble keeping his feet under him, doctors had trimmed on his toes and foot until we thought he never would learn how to dance.  That is, until he found the right teacher.  In 2014 he met Christy (Sibley) Breen at the Carlsbad Senior Citizen Center.  She taught him way more than a two step and waltz.  They swapped ranching stories from the London and Sibley families, her family became our family and our family became theirs. They lived, loved, laughed, cried, and cared for each other for the last 10 years of his life.  She was by his side in sickness and in health, helped pick him up when he fell, bind his wounds, which were many, and cared for him to the very end.  Love is more than an emotion. It is what we do.  Well done Christy!

A visitation and celebration of life will be held at Denton Wood Funeral Home in Carlsbad.  Visitation will be February 9 from 10am - 12:30pm.  Celebration of Life Service will be February 10th at 2:30 with Grave Side and Color Guard salute to follow at Carlsbad Cemetery.