THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 20, 1996 TAG: 9607200220
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY RONALD L. SPEER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WANCHESE LENGTH: 51 lines
Willie ``Gus'' Saunders Sr., who roared around the nation on his powerful 1941 black-and-red motorcycle after his final fishing boat sank and sent him into retirement, has made his last ``poker run.''
He died Thursday at the age of 85, and he was still riding until three months ago. That's when heart and gall bladder surgery took him out of the saddle of his beloved Harley-Davidson, a powerful 1200cc machine widely known as ``Knucklehead.''
Saunders, a Wanchese native who fished the Atlantic all his life until his 110-foot Sea Rambler, converted from a World War I sub chaser into a trawler, went to the bottom in New England waters in 1986.
``He pretty much retired then,'' said Winnie Saunders, one of six daughters and four sons who survive along with the waterman's wife, Thalia.
Saunders was widely known in North Carolina and Virginia for his rides in the ``poker runs,'' where motorcycle riders stop at prearranged spots to pick up playing cards. At the end of the run, prizes and congratulatory kisses from beauty queens go to riders whose cards make the best poker hands.
``Ole Man Gus - everybody called him that - won a lot of poker run prizes, including some for being the oldest rider,'' said Winnie Saunders. ``But he liked to ride all over the country.
``In 1979, he went to South Dakota for a convention at Sturgis and he drove all the way while I rode behind him, hanging on.
``He put 6,037 miles on the Knucklehead on that trip,'' she said.
``He had a black jacket. But he wasn't mean-looking - just a little weathered.''
Gus Saunders was a member of the Tidewater Motorcycle Club, a chapter of HOG (Harley Owners Group).
Scores of those bikers are expected today at 2 p.m. services for Saunders at Bethany Methodist Church in Wanchese.
``He was a friend of everyone,'' said fellow biker R. Wayne Gray, a poet and restaurateur in Wanchese. ``And all he wanted to talk about was his Harley. There wasn't any other bike for him.
``He had to kick-start it. And that isn't easy. He loved to ride, all over the country. He'd been to Montana and the state of Washington and South Dakota.
``I bet there'll be more than 100 bikers here for the funeral - and the last ride they'll make for him.
``Gus was a classic rider on a classic bike.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, The Virginian-Pilot
Willie "Gus" Saunders Sr., who died Thursday at 85, collects kisses
at a 1994 rally of an Outer Banks cycle club.
KEYWORDS: OBITUARY by CNB