| | Levoy Weaver 
LAKE HAMILTON -- Growing peas isn't an easy job, but Mr. Levoy Weaver of Lake Hamilton, a harvesting manager for Orange-Co, grew several acres of the vegetable every year.
Mr. Weaver died of heart failure Saturday (July 8, 2006) in Davenport. He was 75.
Born June 16, 1931, in Grant, Ala., Mr. Weaver moved to Lake Hamilton from Lake Alfred in 1974.
Mr. Weaver worked as a harvesting manager for Orange-Co in Lake Hamilton for 29 years.
Between February and July, prime pea season, Mr. Weaver also set to work growing close to 12 acres of the vegetable to sell to local customers. Because peas are highly susceptible to bugs and require lots of intensive labor, growing them can be hard work.
"He used dish soap to get rid of bugs," said his daughter, Amy Carter of Dundee. Safer than insecticide, the folk remedy has been around for a while.
Before he even began planting, there was a customer waiting list for the peas. When he first began planting about 20 years ago they went for $7 or $8 a bushel. The price eventually reached $17.
"He grew them because people around here love peas and there were a lot of them," his daughter said. "People called him the Pea Man."
Mr. Weaver often returned to his hometown of Grant, Ala., to purchase antique farm equipment. His collection of old wagons was used in Christmas parades and loaned to grocery stores for use as decorative produce stands.
"Grant is sort of old timey," his daughter said.
Finding antiques is a matter of riding around, looking in people's yards, and offering to buy old equipment. Her father also bought mules.
"He didn't farm with the mules, they were just recreational, to give kids rides," she said.
Mr. Weaver attended the Church of God.
He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Jean Weaver; daughters, Lynette Rhoden, Haines City, Janice Bowman, Lake Hamilton, and Amy Carter, Dundee; brothers, Max Derrick, Arab, Ala., and Glenton Weaver, Grant, Ala.; sister, Daisy Baker, Scotsboro, Ala.; father, Willis Waver, Grant; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be this evening from 5 to 7 at Oak Ridge Funeral Care, Haines City. Services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. |
