Profiles of Life: John Berry Green Sr.

John Berry Green Sr. couldn't sit still.

The retired carpenter left retirement and resumed working for Oklahoma County after hanging up his tool belt in the 1980s. But his health and failing memory finally forced the 50-year Mason to stay at his south Oklahoma City home.

An accident on the way to the family's storm shelter late Monday led to Green's death Wednesday at an Oklahoma City hospital. His daughter-in-law, Patricia Green, said she and Green's son, John Jr., tried to move the bedridden man into a wheelchair once weather reports said the tornado was near their home.

"He's a good-sized man, even though he was confined to bed for the last several years," Patricia Green said. "We didn't get him up much for that reason."

Patricia Green said she and her husband were trying to lower the elder Green's wheelchair into the storm cellar when they lost control. The 84-year-old man fell, and hospital workers later said his neck had been broken. The tornado never hit the Greens' home.

In his prime, John Green Sr. loved his work and going fishing with John Jr., his only child.

Green's wife, Velma Mae, died in October 1992. He also leaves two grandsons, five step-grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.

- Tamie Ross