There’s a lot to celebrate about the life of longtime Morgan Hill resident Willie Wilkinson, and his friends and family will memorialize him with a May 20 blowout complete with some of his favorite pastimes—music, dancing and time spent with hundreds of those who knew and loved him best.
Wilkinson died unexpectedly April 28 at the age of 68, at his girlfriend’s home in San Juan Bautista. He grew up in Sunnyvale, and has lived in Morgan Hill since 1994, according to his daughter Adrianne Wilkinson.
Adrianne was backstage at the Morgan Hill Community Playhouse preparing for the South Valley Civic Theater’s production of “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” when she heard about her father’s death. The crew told her they could delay the show that evening, but she insisted on performing as scheduled, for her father.
“He wouldn’t want that,” Adrianne said a few days after Willie’s death.
It’s hard to keep up with all the stories and memories about Willie Wilkinson—a “legend”—shared recently by Adrianne and Willie’s son Cody, along with a handful of local friends who were drawn to his natural ability to find and enjoy good company.
Almost everywhere he went, Willie was likely to run into someone he knew, “from all walks of life” and of all ages, according to Cody.
“One thing that made my father such a great person (is) every interaction a person would have with him would leave (them) with a great memory,” Cody, who now lives in Carlsbad, said in an email. “My dad would do anything for my sister and myself, and that really flowed over to his friends as well. That is why you hear all of his friends refer to each other as a family.”
Willie Wilkinson was a U.S. Army veteran who was proud of his service, which included two tours in Vietnam in 1968 as a flight engineer on a Chinook helicopter. After returning to the states, he enjoyed a variety of livelihoods, including as a dance teacher, bouncer, bodyguard, rodeo performer, ski instructor and mechanic. At the time of his death, Willie was retired from his most recent career as a precision machinist.
In his later years, perhaps his favorite thing to do—other than spend time with old friends and make new ones—was to ride his motorcycle. Many of his friends in Morgan Hill enjoyed riding with him, and the group often traveled hundreds of miles to attend regional and national motorcycle gatherings.
“Willie rode in the front on every ride,” said Will Anderson, a Morgan Hill resident who has been riding with Willie since he met him a few years ago.
“He’s our Biker Buddha,” added Twyla Sulesky, also of Morgan Hill. She was referencing Willie’s penchant for dispensing with profound advice and observations about life and the universe—a wisdom he shared with his own brood and complete strangers alike.
“Everybody loves him,” Twyla said. “Willie was such a people person.”
He was a fixture at some of downtown Morgan Hill’s most popular establishments, and at the summertime Friday Night Music Series at the Community and Cultural Center, where the May 20 celebration of his life will take place.
“He had a way about him that would just draw people in,” Cody added.
Willie and his girlfriend, Shawn Lovering of San Juan Bautista, were together for about a year before he died, Lovering said. She described how “generous” he was in taking her to doctor’s appointments and treatment sessions during her recent bout with cancer.
“It’s like we’re kindred spirits. We immediately had a connection” when they first met, Lovering said.
The most important part of Willie’s life were his two children, Anderson noted. Willie was a devoted follower of Adrianne’s theater productions, and even made lasting impressions on some of her young students. Cody said whenever he said goodbye at the end of any conversation—on the phone or in person—his father never failed to say, “I love you.”
“We talked every morning on the phone,” added Adrianne, who teaches at a school in Gilroy. “This is really hard for us, but I feel lucky in a way because this is my dad. How many people can say (their) dad touched so many lives?”
Anderson said, and other friends agreed, Willie died “on top of the world,” after recent years recovering from cancer, back surgery and heart complications seemed only to strengthen his spirits.
“He was walking tall (and) he was in love,” Anderson said.
<
Friends and family of Willie Wilkinson, who died April 28 at the age of 68, invite the community to a celebration of his life 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 20, at the Morgan Hill Downtown Amphitheater, at the Community and Cultural Center, 17000 Monterey Road.
