Roy Nelson Foxworthy

Roy Foxworthy, 86, of Tarpon Springs, FL, passed away on Monday, February 16, 2015 at a hospice center in Palm Harbor, FL. Roy was born on October 28, 1928 in Indianapolis, IN, the son of Claude Theodore Foxworthy and Edith Helena (Amos) Foxworthy. He graduated from Broad Ripple High School and attended Butler University in Indianapolis and also Parks Aeronautical College in St. Louis, MO. Later he was the owner and manager of Foxworthy Ford in Indianapolis until he sold the company and retired in October, 1987. He was also a veteran of the United States Coast Guard, and was a resident of Florida and Indiana all his life. Roy’s father introduced him to his beloved sport of trapshooting at age 12. Roy won the Sub-Junior Clay Target Championship in 1942 (at age 13) with 93x100 and again in 1943 with a 95x100 at the Grand American Trapshoot in Vandalia, OH. He quit trapshooting until his comeback in 1960 when he won the prestigious Grand American Handicap ( also in Vandalia) with a 100 straight against more than 2400 competitors, a feat accomplished by only 6 other people from 1928-1960. In that same year, he shot 198x200 in the North American Clay Target C...[more]

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Championship and 100x100 in the handicap, thus earning him the coveted Herb Parsons trophy. Roy was a proficient pilot, having earned his pilot’s license at age 18. Over the years, he owned more than 35 airplanes and loved flying with his family all over North America, Canada and the Caribbean. He built an experimental airplane called the Christen Eagle and won awards for outstanding quality and workmanship, including the Experimental Aircraft Association Reserve Grand Champion for Kit Built in 1986 (Oshkosh, WI) and the Wright Brothers Award (Dayton, OH). After that he spent 7 ½ years restoring a rare Johnson Rocket airplane which won the EAA Grand National Champion in the Classic Division in 1994, also in Oshkosh. Roy also loved to travel, and he arranged a yearly charter flight for trapshooters to the Golden West Grand Trapshoot in Reno, NV over a 15-year period. In 1968 he organized and led another 4 trips to Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Roy was preceded in death by his parents and 4 brothers, Gordon Claude Foxworthy, Richard Allen Foxworthy, Eugene Robert Foxworthy, and Donald Lewis Foxworthy. He is survived by wife of 51 years, Betty Ann (Lewis); 3 sisters, Martha (Ted) Westervelt, Pat (Vernon, deceased) Earle and Joby (Tom) O’Keefe; 4 children, Linda (Bob) Flynn, Beverly (Paul) Radloff, Scott (Madelyn) Foxworthy and Carol (Mahmoud) Bahrami; and 5 step-children, David (Donna) Bixler, Kathy (Doug) Bedwell, Scott Bixler, Anna Emerson and Brian Bixler. His 10 grandchildren include Amanda Foxworth, Jessica Radloff, Roya Bahrami, Layla Bahrami, Erin Foxworthy, Colin Bixler, Ian Bixler, Douglas Bedwell, Elizabeth (Brad) Hayes and David (Shannon) Bedwell. He leaves behind 5 great-grandchildren, Taylor Bedwell, Chloe Hayes, Marek Hayes, Ellia Hayes and Hailey Bedwell. Throughout his life, Roy was known by his friends and family as a man who loved adventure and the thrill that comes from creating new things. He was always building or fixing something, whether it was an airplane, a boat or an automobile engine. He had a sharp sense of humor and lived life to the fullest, earning the love and affection of all who knew him. He is greatly missed. An Entombment Ceremony was held on Monday, March 16, 2015 at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana.