Jennings Luckey: 'a true cheerleader for FMCA'

Forging ties with FMCA

Genny’s 44-year relationship with FMCA grew from correspondence with Bob Richter, of Hanson, Mass. He organized the first rendezvous of bus-car owners in Hinckley, Maine, and went on to become FMCA's first national president.

“He had a motorhome built out of a bus the same as we did,” Genny said. “And we contacted him and other people from all over the country that we knew who had those sorts of things. All the people up in the east, where Bob started, they had a lot of them up there.”

In letters to the Jennings, Richter hinted that he was thinking of forming an organization of house car owners. “I wrote back to him and told him that whatever they did, we wanted to be a part of it,” Genny said.

In April 1963, Richter circulated a letter to a group of house car-owning families, including the Jennings, inviting them to attend a July 20 gathering in Hinckley, to view a solar eclipse.

But Howard and Genny already had other plans. “That was the year we were going to take the kids out West to see the cowboys and Indians,” Genny said. “So we decided, nope, we couldn’t tell the children we were going out there in the East instead of going to see cowboys and Indians. You don’t do that with all those little kids. We were going out to Colorado and Utah and that area, and we did.”

After the Hinckley meeting, though, Richter sent a note to the Jennings to let them know about the formation of the Family Motor Coach Association. “I sent him some money — $5 — and told him that was to be our first payment … that’s what our dues were that first time,” Genny said.

And so, the Jennings became FMCA’s 26th member family.

FMCA service

By the late 1960s, Genny had begun pursuing leadership positions within FMCA. Meanwhile, Howard, was working 70 to 80 hours a week at the funeral home (he retired in 1986).

As more of the kids began to fly the nest, FMCA began to figure more prominently in Genny’s life.

“She was busy with FMCA national office and the Michigan Knights of the Highway [one of FMCA’s first chapters],” Ralph said. “So for a while there, FMCA was basically her entire life.”

Genny served as:

• FMCA national secretary from 1967 to 1970
• FMCA national vice president from 1974 to 1975
• FMCA national fourth vice president 1975 to 1976
• FMCA national fifth vice president from 1976 to 1977
• FMCA national director-at-large (a chapter officer position) from 1977-1978
• FMCA Great Lakes Area vice president from 1982 to 1986

Genny was elected to the office of national secretary at about the same time that Spurgeon, FMCA’s Membership director, began working for FMCA. “Genny was one of the first members I met when I attended my first convention in Bowling Green, Ky. She has been a tireless volunteer for FMCA; her contributions to the association are priceless.”

Of her time as an FMCA national officer, Genny said simply, “I met so many nice people and we tried to do so many good things for the organization.”

An affinity for chapters

Many of the friendships Genny has formed originated from her involvement in FMCA chapters. She belongs to the Pipe Dreamers, Michigan Knights of the Highway and Creative Travelers chapters.

“I tried early on to encourage chapters because I thought that that’s the closeness that you get. It’s great to go to national conventions and everything and meet people, but the monthly things you do in your own community and area are the most important. You learn more about your friends and I think people appreciated it better.”

Fellow Michigan Knights members Dorothy and Edgar Casada of Highland, Ind., joined FMCA in 1967 and have known Genny for 30 years. “People are drawn to Genny because she’s sincere, she’s open and she’s friendly,” Dorothy said.

Genny met her second husband, Bill Luckey, through the Michigan Knights chapter. In fact, she and Bill were married at a Michigan Knights chapter meeting in 1994.

Coach history

Through the years, Genny has owned six motorhomes and traveled to every U.S. state except Alaska. “Well, of course you can’t take the motorhome to Hawaii, but I have been there, too.”

In 1964 Genny and Howard bought their second motorhome — a Flxible bus — from Hotard Coaches Inc., a charter bus company in Reserve, La.

“When we got the Flxible, Dad actually bought a wrecked Airstream trailer and salvaged some things — mostly cupboards and a couple of appliances — out of that and put them in the Flxible,” Ralph said. “And we did put a bathroom in that one.”

The Flxible may have been better equipped, but Ralph will always have a soft spot for the green Ford bus.

“Those were actually pretty fun times, particularly for me, when we had everybody in the green bus. I helped my dad convert the Flxible, which kind of gave me an affinity for that particular bus, but the green bus was the one we did so much traveling in, when I was young.”

About three years after converting the bus, the Jennings began towing a small trailer to make conditions in the bus less crowded. “It gave our folks a little privacy,” Ralph said. "And it was fun for the nine of us in the bus with not nearly as much supervision.”

Three more motorhomes

The Jennings bought their third coach, which proved to be Genny’s favorite, in the early 1970s. It was made by Newell Coach Corporation, which had just begun introducing diesel-powered motorhomes with rear engines.

Eventually, they sold the Newell to FMCA members Roy and Shirley Leschinskey of California, and bought a Landau. After Howard died in 1988, Genny sold the Landau and downsized to a 29-foot Winnebago Sunrise.

The Winnebago Sunrise proved too small for Genny and her second husband, Bill Luckey, so they bought a 38-foot Foretravel Unihome, which she owns today.

Bill passed away in March 2006 after 12 years of marriage to Genny.

Still traveling

Today, this grandmother to 29 (including Bill’s four grandkids), and great-grandmother to 15 (three of which are Bill’s grandkids), doesn’t drive her motorhome often anymore. “Bill wouldn’t let me drive very much, so I’m getting a little bit chicken about driving the coach. But women can drive them just as well as men can. Like I tell all the other ladies, the rear end will go wherever the front goes, wherever you drive it.”

She’s put the Foretravel up for sale but hasn’t ruled out the possibility of purchasing a smaller motorhome. “I think motorhoming is the best thing in the world for anybody, to be able to travel and see everything that’s good in America. There is so much beauty here.”

She flies to Europe on occasion to visit her daughter who lives in Sweden, and intends to continue to attend FMCA conventions and see the “beautiful things here in America.”

Of course, she has her mind set on attending FMCA’s convention in St. Paul, Minn., in 2008.

It might be time to start on another vest.

The green vest

At conventions, Genny’s green vest is an eye-catcher. It’s inundated with patches, pendants, souvenir pins and buttons that contain pithy lines like “Smile when you yell at me!” and “FMCA members R #1.” Other attachments salute her FMCA chapters, her home state of Michigan and states she’s visited.

“I’m kind of a button collector. I have lots of buttons I’ve picked up from different places I’ve gone. People have traded for this one or that one. It’s interesting to do.”

Three columns of convention hash marks are sewn onto the back of the vest. They’re embroidered with the city, state and year of each convention she has attended.

Genny first donned the vest in July 1976 at FMCA’s 13th annual summer convention in Centreville, Mich., which was co hosted by her Michigan Knights of the Highway chapter. “I wear it at least the first day of the convention, to show everybody that, hey, I’ve been here before.”

Has she ever.

Convention reflections

From 1964 to 1975, FMCA held one convention in July or June each year. Those were no problem for the Genny and Howard Jennings family to attend.

But in 1976 the association began hosting an “annual winter” convention, as well, usually in March.

“In our community my husband was on the school board and you just didn’t take your kids out of school,” Genny said. “Nowadays, people do … but we would never take the children out of school for that.”

As the children grew up, got married, and school no longer was an obstacle, Genny and Howard became fixtures at nearly every FMCA convention, as dependable as the coach displays and evening entertainment.

Active conventioneer

It’s hard for Genny to single out one convention as her definite favorite, but the Sixth Annual Summer Convention at the Traverse City Civic Center in July 1969 stands out.

“I guess the one I think most of is the one we had in Michigan in Traverse City. It was real important because back then we [FMCA] were small. We had 555 coaches there and that was really quite a mark at that time.”

As FMCA conventions progressed to a much grander scale, Genny’s enthusiasm for the events never waned.

“I still like just about everything about them. I do enjoy seeing all the displays and go to as many seminars as I can. I still go to the [Governing] board meetings. I enjoy listening and hearing what they’re doing. Since I’m a past national officer, I feel kind of interested to know what’s going on, too.”

The most recent convention she attended was in Redmond, Oregon, in August 2007. She rode to Redmond with her friends the Casadas in their Newmar Dutch Star. “Other times I have followed them in my coach,” she said.

Regardless of how she gets there, FMCA always will be honored by her presence.