For a lifetime, John Nunn was connected to the land. He liked to turn the soil, tend the plants, and harvest the crop.

Nunn, the youngest of 14 children -- seven boys and seven girls -- was born on a farm in Bridgeport, Neb., in 1917, and moved with his family to Hover, Wash., in 1937.

Nunn died of congestive heart failure on June 6. He was 86.

As a young man, he worked on a farm in the area and attended church at the small Methodist church.

One day, the pretty girl from the farm next door, also a member of the church, caught her dress on the fence as she took a shortcut through a neighbor's orchard. She caught Nunn's eye as well.

The two married in 1941, just shy of Ellen Ashby's 18th birthday, and were married 62 years.

When the government purchased their land in 1947 as part of the McNary Dam project the couple moved to Richland. Nunn took a job with the Postal Service and they raised three daughters, Marilyn, Peggy and Jonnie.

An avid outdoorsman, Nunn loved to hunt, but fishing was his passion.

"You don't understand fishing until you fish with my dad," daughter Jonnie Schroeder said.

"He liked to get up and get on the lake before the sun came up, and the family joke was that he was still cleaning fish at midnight."

Even working full time as a postal carrier, Nunn continued to farm. "When we were growing up, we raised everything we ate," daughter Peggy Cantley said.

Harvesting and freezing corn for the winter involved the entire family.

"We would have an assembly line shucking the corn, putting it in boiling water, then ice," daughter Marilyn Starr added.

"Then, someone would cut it off the ear and we would bag it and freeze it."

Nunn loved to camp with his family.

They visited Mount Rainier and the Oregon Coast, but his favorite destination was "wherever there was a lake to fish in," Starr said.

The family attended church and, because Nunn had a tendency to "nod off" during the service, Ellen always put one of the girls on each side of him.

"It was our job to pinch him and wake him up," Starr said. "He always said he was just resting his eyes," Schroeder added with a laugh.

Later Nunn and his wife traveled around the country in a motor home, as part of the Grange-affiliated camping group, The Spokampers.

In 1980, Nunn retired after 32 years with the post office, and the couple moved to Spokane.

"We decided, not too long after we were married, we would move to Spokane," Ellen Nunn said.

"We planned to sit and rock, and farm, and fish, when we retired."

Even living in the city, Nunn continued to garden.

He grew tomatoes, figs, pears, as well as flowers in the beds surrounding the house. A pet canary filled the house with song.

Active members of the congregation at Trinity United Methodist Church in Spokane, the couple served as financial secretaries for more than 10 years.

Nunn loved music. He collected more than 500 albums and liked to make cassettes of his favorite songs. He particularly loved big band and gospel music.

The family hopes to donate Nunn's collection to Spokane Public Radio.

Nunn found great joy in his children and grandchildren.

"He was so loving to all of us," Peggy Cantley said.

"He helped us raise the grandchildren."

Now when his children gather to talk about their father, they like to remember the way he enjoyed the little things in life. Like the way he loved ice cream. The family used an old hand-crank ice-cream maker and it was understood that Dad would get to lick the paddles.

"My dad taught us all something that makes the world crazy," Schroeder said.

"He told us we should always lick the bowl clean."