{"id":7529,"date":"2025-03-19T06:40:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T10:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/?p=7529"},"modified":"2025-03-26T21:33:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T01:33:32","slug":"joseph-c-dekay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/?p=7529","title":{"rendered":"Joseph C. DeKay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Cameron, New York<\/p>\n

Joseph C. \u201cJoe\u201d DeKay \u2013 66 \u2013 of Clark Road, Cameron, died early Tuesday morning (March 18, 2025) at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, PA following a long illness.<\/p>\n

Born in Bath on July 30, 1958, he was the son of Chester & Effie (VanSile) DeKay.<\/p>\n

Joe grew up in Cameron and attended Haverling High School in Bath, NY.\u00a0 He had been employed for a time at Lane Pipe Company in Bath and later worked for Taylor Wine in Hammondsport where he wore many hats including tying grapes, picking grapes, pulling brush, tending to the vineyards, working in the winery and bottling.<\/p>\n

He was briefly employed at Gunlock Corporation in Wayland and for a short time worked for the Town of Wheeler as a Truck Driver and plowing roads.\u00a0 For many years he served as a driver for Busy Bee Disposal and later Casella Waste (33 years total), retiring in September, 2020.<\/p>\n

Joe was a life member of the Bath VFW and a longtime Buffalo Bills Football fan — especially during the Super Bowl years and in recent years loved rooting for his favorite player, Josh Allen.\u00a0 He was an avid NASCAR fan whose favorite drivers include Dale Earnhardt Sr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Martin Truex.\u00a0 He also had an appreciation for \u201cMuscle Cars\u201d and throughout the years owned several muscle cars, including a Firebird, Camaro, and was proud of his 2015 Dodge Challenger.\u00a0 In the summer months and when weather permitted, Joe loved taking long rides on his Harley Davidson Motorcycle.\u00a0 He also loved spending time on the porch with his German Shepherd, Holly. J oe took pride in maintaining his lawn with his John Deere tractor.\u00a0 He was an avid listener of loud rock music with his favorite group being AC\/DC and his favorite local band, Buster Crab.<\/p>\n

In addition to his parents, Chester & Effie, Joe was preceded in death by 2 brothers, James DeKay and Philip DeKay; 3 sisters, Marjorie Cummings, Patricia Wilcox, and Judy Sprague.<\/p>\n

He was married on June 3, 2006 to the former Kathy Griffith who survives.\u00a0 Also surviving are his children, Will (Kelly Smilinich) Nunn of Wallace, NY, Jennifer (Nathan) Damboise of Cameron, and Jeffrey (Nikki Didier) DeKay of Spearfish, SD; his brother, Scott (Bonnie) DeKay of Cameron; 3 grandchildren, Caitlin Nunn, Trevor (Liz) Nunn, and Nathan Nunn; 1 great-grandson, Andrew Nunn; many nieces & nephews.<\/p>\n

At Joe\u2019s request there will be no calling hours or services.\u00a0 A \u201cCelebration of Life\u201d will be held on May 3, 2025 from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Hornell VFW, 245 Canisteo Street.<\/p>\n

Funeral arrangements are in care of the Dagon Funeral Home, 38 Church St., Hornell, NY.<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s family request that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in his name be made to the Finger Lakes SPCA, 72 Cameron St., Bath, NY\u00a0 14810.<\/p>\n

To leave an online condolence or share a memory, visit www.dagonfuneralhome.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cameron, New York Joseph C. \u201cJoe\u201d DeKay \u2013 66 \u2013 of Clark Road, Cameron, died early Tuesday morning (March 18, 2025) at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, PA following a long illness. Born in Bath on July 30, 1958, he was the son of Chester & Effie (VanSile) DeKay. Joe grew up in Cameron and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7529"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7537,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7529\/revisions\/7537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}