San Joaquin County CA Archives Obituaries.....Garrison, Duane January 2, 2006
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K T bluewolf@onemain.com January 3, 2006, 10:38 pm

The Tracy Press
Duane Garrison

June 5, 1914 — Jan. 2, 2006

Duane Garrison, 91, a lifelong Tracy resident and a retired Tracy sporting 
goods store owner who wrote a number of columns about his life and his 
hometown for the Tracy Press, died Monday morning at Tracy Convalescent 
Hospital. 

He was born in Fresno, where his mother, Luella Garrison, went to be with her 
husband, Roy Garrison, a Southern Pacific engineer. The family returned to 
Tracy a few weeks later, and Mr. Garrison lived here ever since.

Mr. Garrison grew up in Tracy and attended Tracy schools. At Tracy High 
School, he was active in sports, playing football, basketball and baseball. 
After he graduated in 1932, he continued playing baseball with local teams.

“I was pretty fast in those days,” he recalled later. “I’ve got a lot of 
memories about playing on those teams.”

At an early age, he loved hunting and fishing and remembered hunting for quail 
just north of Grant Line Road when the area was still in the country.

After working as a grocery store checker and at other jobs, he joined Southern 
Pacific as a trainman in 1936 and later was promoted to conductor.

In 1946, he and another conductor, John Freeman, opened Garfree Sporting Goods 
on Central Avenue. 

Freeman was an expert gunsmith, and Mr. Garrison was an avid fisherman and 
hunter.

A year later, Mr. Garrison bought out his partner. After he and his wife, 
Anne, were married in 1948, they worked together in the store.

“I couldn’t have done it without Ann,” Mr. Garrison recalled later. “She 
pitched right in from the start and worked when I got a day off.”

A specialty of the store was providing bait, including live Monterey sardines, 
for fishermen. On weekends, Mr. Garrison was at the store at 5 a.m. to serve 
fishermen heading to the Delta.

While working in the store, Mr. Garrison acquired a number of nicknames, 
including “Carp,” “Catfish” and “Moon.” Many customers just called 
him “Garfree.”

During his years at the store, Mr. Garrison wrote a weekly column about 
hunting and fishing and also a personal column, titled “Tattletale,” for the 
Tracy Press. “Tattletale” included his observations about life in Tracy — past 
and present.

After the Garrisons retired and closed the sporting goods store in December 
1977, Mr. Garrison continued writing his personal column. He also sold 
specialty-fishing lures.

“Yep, I’m going fishing,” he said then. “They don’t call me ‘Carp’ for 
nothing.”

For a number of years, he and his wife spent summers in their motor home in 
San Francisco, staying at a trailer park where SBC Park is now located.

When he could no longer travel because of ill health, he got a letter of 
appreciation for his comments in his column about his visits there from then-
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

Even after becoming a patient at Tracy Convalescent Hospital five years ago, 
Mr. Garrison continued writing his column. A number of times, he recalled 
Tracy’s old “Poker City” days in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, when bootlegging, 
gambling and prostitution flourished. 

Survivors include his wife, Anne Garrison of Tracy, and a brother, Fred 
Garrison of Sebastopol.

No services are planned. The Neptune Society is handling arrangements. 

Published on Tuesday, January 03, 2006, in the Tracy Press. 


Additional Comments:
Volunteer submission - No relation to the deceased.
No other information available from submitter.
http://www.tracypress.com/obituaries/


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