Gabe Hensley, 59, Moores Hill, loved to help other people. After Hurricane Katrina struck the South in 2005, he used his mortuary skills to recover bodies and restore cemeteries through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team.

When he lost his 2000 election bid for Dearborn County coroner, he accepted a job as a deputy coroner because he simply wanted to be a part of the department, said son Dale Hensley, Seymour.

Gabe Hensley died doing something else he loved, flying his Cessna 172. An avid outdoorsman, Gabe Hensley started flying about 10 years ago. He was a U.S. Air Force veteran who served in Japan during Vietnam, but he did not fly at that time, said Dale Hensley.

He worked as a funeral director/embalmer but pay was low. He took a factory job, retiring after working for Andrew Jergens Co. for more than 20 years.

‘He was a devout Christian man and worked really hard after he retired. He managed apartment buildings, kept busy with his hobbies, ran a small business working for funeral homes, including Fitch-Denney Funeral Home, Greendale. “He was a good, Christian man. He led by example,” said Ron Denney, owner of Fitch-Denney Funeral Home.

Denney graduated from mortuary school with Hensley in 1970. During his run for coroner in 2000, Gabe Hensley stressed his Christian beliefs and his desire to help families. Although he lost the election, he worked for former coroner Mike Kreinhop as a deputy corner .

He also was a talented musician and funny. The friends often traded jokes back and forth, sometimes telling the same jokes over and over. “Whatever I needed of him, night or day, he would do it for me. ... I miss him already,” said Denney.

In addition to his son, Dale, he is survived by his wife, Brenda; parents Gabe and Oma Hensley, Cincinnati; son Bob Collier, Louisville, Ky.; daughters Cristie Williamson, Milan, and Rhonda Myers, Lawrenceburg; brother, Dale Hensley, West Chester; 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild and another on the way via Christy . May he rest in peace.