Eddie Rye Sr. Or `Gramps' To People He Entertained, Helped With Problems

They didn't call him ``Gramps'' for nothing.

During the '50s and '60s you'd frequently find Eddie Rye Sr. comfortably seated in the living room of his Central Area home, bending the ears of a melting pot of neighborhood teen-agers ho later grew into community leaders.

When he moved to Seward Park, he regaled his real grandchildren with stories of his childhood in Louisiana.

If they complained about having to get up early to catch the school bus, he reminded them he had to walk four miles to school because the buses in Shreveport wouldn't pick up black students.

Rye died Monday of a heart attack at the Seward Park house. He was 79.

Rye had been retired 14 years at the time of his death, but his was a life of hard work. The youngest of 10 children, he started work early as a porter for railroads in Louisiana.

He moved to Seattle in 1952 and joined the city's Engineering Department as a street and utility maintenance man in the late '50s, then left about 15 years later to work as a machinist at local shipyards.

Rye was active in the Machinist Union and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

But he was best known for the work he did after hours, entertaining and encouraging those around him.

Mayor Norm Rice, a friend of Rye's son Eddie Jr., remembers Rye's excellent catfish, grilled in the back yard. ``There wasn't anybody who could make you feel warmer or more comfortable,'' Rice said.

The elder Rye would listen to teen-agers who had problems at home, inviting them to spend the night if they needed to. As the teen-agers grew into men with professional successes, he told them never to rest on their laurels.

``He reminded us there was always something more we could be doing,'' said Robert Flowers, a one-time Garfield High School basketball player who now is manager of the commercial real estate division of Washington Mutual Savings Bank. ``It was a sense of grounding, of roots, of what you ought to be doing as an African American.''

Yet Rye wasn't vocal - he played the background adviser, watching as his son Eddie became a prominent spokesman in the black community. His son is chairman of the Black Contractors' Coalition and led the campaign to rename Empire Way after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1983.

The elder Rye ``was not out front. But he was always there,'' said the Rev. Samuel McKinney, minister of Mount Zion Baptist Church, where Rye was an active member. ``You could count on him.''

That was why Rye always kept his number listed in the telephone directory even after he got a number of nasty calls that were actually for his activist son, who had an unlisted number.

But his father, the younger Rye remembers, refused to go the same route: ``He wanted to be sure people could find him.''

Rye is survived by his wife, Myrtle; his daughters Sally Rye Looney and Brenda Joyce Rye Brock; his sons Eddie Jr., Jerry, Jack and Reggie; and nine grandchildren. All reside in the Seattle area.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. today at Mount Zion Baptist Church, 1634 19th Ave. The family suggests donations to the Mount Zion Fellowship Fund.