Roger Kent Ballinger

Roger Kent Ballinger, 57, passed away Wednesday, September 7, 2016.

Funeral services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Monday, September 12, in Biggers Funeral Chapel. Burial will be In Greenwood Memorial Park, 3100 White Settlement Rd., Fort Worth, TX 76107. The family will be present to receive friends from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, September 11, at the funeral home.

Roger Kent Ballinger was known as “Big Pop”, “Bob Builder”, and “Big Rog-loving brother” and was an amazing husband, father, grandfather and master plumber. He worked hard to play hard. He fought his way through his motorcycle endure career, then moved on to dirt track racing at Boyd Raceway on Fridays, then would turn around and hit Cowtown Speedway on Saturdays.

He learned plenty of life lessons going around that oval – – when to shoot the gap, when to take it easy and just observe, and then when it was called for, to use brute force. With all that he learned, he even had time to make life-long friends along the way.

There are still to this day, people that recall different times they have seen Roger race. But as life moved on and everyone started getting older, softball was the next competitive sport to be conquered. Roger coached and helped develop numerous girls into young ladies. He showed when you work hard, and show patience, no matter what, you can fight and conquer. The same applied to his work. He put in his hours at Sundance Square for 18 years. They called and he went, because he knew others were counting on him and his trade. Also, even if he had put in a full day’s work, had a race, or we had a game, if an individual called and needed his help, Roger would load up his work trailer and head right to them. It didn’t matter if it was a leaky faucet, stopped-up toilet, or water heater that went out. No matter the time or day, he would be there. He touched many people’s lives in just the services he provided to his community.

Then when softball was done, and racing had been argued out of the picture, there was another competition that took over the “free time” Roger had. Competition Bar-B-Que! Roger had been cooking for the tail-gates, birthdays, and company parties, but then with enough encouragement and support from his family and friends he made the move to “KatDaddy” cooking. This was another chapter in his life where he was all in. That was how he rolled – – all or nothing. Roger would do the cook-offs here locally. Every year started with Cops for Kids Cook-off, but he would travel out as well. And when he headed out, he headed out. He would do the Eighter from Decatur, and start the planning process for being in New Mexico for the end of the year cook-off, and hitting Dumas, Texas on the way out was a good time as well. It was tradition for Roger and his neighbors at the cook-offs to have a big dinner the night before. He would invite everyone he knew and those people would invite their friends, so that night was all ways a great time. Then, the morning of the competition, Roger would start cooking a breakfast fit for a king. He would invite all the neighboring cooks to come and get a plate. We think that’s how he earned himself even more friends and companions. Roger didn’t care if they were all cooking against each other that day – – he knew that he wanted biscuits and gravy and that’s what they were having too. Every year if people knew that “KatDaddy” was there, they would check with him and see what they needed to bring for dinner, or for breakfast, or sometimes both! He always said “when it came to cooking, it’s always better to have too much, than not enough.”

In the end, we think that applied to more than just cooking, it is the gift he left us in life – – love each other too much, so there is never any doubt that we weren’t loved enough.

Those preceding Roger in passing, his father Milburn “Duncan” Ballinger, and his mother Bessie “Granny” Ballinger.

He is survived by his wife, Trish; son, Jake, and wife, Naomi and daughter, Shayleigh; daughter, Cristina Gallagher, and husband, Jason and two sons, Jayden and Calvin; brother, JB, and wife, Kt; brother, Alan and wife, Colette; sister, Joanne; numerous nieces and nephews; Princey; and a host of extended family and friends.