Obit of Hancock, Monty - Grady County, Oklahoma Transcribed by: Gene Phillips 11 Feb 2007 Return to Grady County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/grady/grady.html ===================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ===================================================================== ::NOT LISTED Santa Rosa Press Democrat Published on December 4, 1999 Monty Dean Hancock, an accomplished musician and a skilled builder and pilot of remote-controlled airplanes, died at a San Francisco hospital Nov. 20 two weeks after suffering a stroke at his Cotati home. He was 63. Hancock was born in Chickasha, Okla., and at the age of 10 he and his family moved to San Rafael, traveling across the country with all their possessions in a station wagon, said his wife of 10 years, Janae Hancock of Cotati. They landed in San Rafael, where they had a home with horses at the foot of Mount Tamalpais. Monty Hancock worked for 23 years for the Mill Valley Record newspaper. An accomplished musician, he played bass guitar for the Ventures and for the Warlords and with the gospel choir the Regular Guys in Santa Rosa. He moved from Marin County to Sebastopol 20 years ago and to Cotati 10 years ago. He was also well known in remote-controlled airplane circles. He built and flew planes for the George Lucas movies "Always" and "Die Hard 2," and also had a part as an extra in "Die Hard 2." For the two movies, he had to make several planes, which were one- quarter to one-fifth scale in size, because they were used in crashes or set on fire, his wife said. Remote-controlled planes had been a passion of his for 30 years. "He could fix anything, build anything, make anything work," his wife said. He also raced motorcycles and cars. She said he was in the bedroom of their Cotati home playing his bass guitar when he suffered a brain aneurysm. He was taken to UC San Francisco, where he underwent brain surgery. He died Nov. 20. Besides his wife, Hancock is survived by children Monty Hancock Jr. and Melissa Hancock, both of Santa Rosa; stepchildren Clayton Abbott of San Francisco, Michelle Abbott of Santa Rosa and Matthew Abbott of Texas; his mother, Faye Kirkland of Placerville; and three bothers and sisters. Memorial services will be at 1 p.m. Friday at the Redwood Covenant Church, 1020 Center Drive, Santa Rosa. Donations to the Redwood Gospel Mission, P.O. Box 493, Santa Rosa 95402, are requested. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Grady County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/grady/grady.html