STAN CANBY
A good hardware store stocks the tools you might need to build a house. A great hardware store owner has the tools to build a great and memorable life… and Stan Canby’s toolbox was overfilled.
Stanley Canby was born on August 1, 1931, at the Tulare Maternity Hospital to Lena and Roland Canby. He was the middle child between brother, Delbert and sister, Susan. The 1930’s were lean years, and Stan learned the value of a strong work ethic. As a boy, he stocked shelves at the family’s hardware store, Canby’s. He also worked for Swall Farms doing a variety of jobs there.
The Canby family and store moved around Tulare a fair bit in those early days. Stan continued working in the family store and pumped gas at a local gas station as well during his junior high school years.
As a member of the Tulare Union Class of 1949, Stan really shined as an athlete. He was captain of the football team and was even recruited by a professional team for baseball. But what really made his high school days special was meeting the newly-arrived-from-Iowa, Billie Williams. Billie was the outgoing head cheerleader, the perfect match for the “quiet and shy” football captain. The two were married on September 2, 1950, on a hotter than usual day. The church had no air conditioning, giving Stan the impetus to open a hugely successful HVAC department at Canby’s.
1950 also saw Stan as part of the state champion College of the Sequoias football team. In 1951, Stan and Billie welcomed a son, Stanley Jr. During these early years of their marriage, Stan and Billie would spend their weekends and any available time they had hand building a cabin at Shaver Lake.
Stan’s son Steve came along in 1953 with son Stuart finishing out the family in 1962. At some point in this happy, busy life, Stan took to the golf course. For over 70 years he made the Tulare Golf Course a home away from home, earning the nickname “Wild Horse”. For about a decade beginning in the late 1960’s, Stan took a break from golf to earn his pilot’s license and fly planes (something Billie did with him one time. And one time only.). In the 70’s he returned to the relative safety of the golf course. He was also a long-time member of the Tulare Elk’s Club and a volunteer at the Tulare Farm Show/World Ag Expo.
While Stan was known as Wild Horse around the golf course, he was known as Dardy to the “scrawny little girl who lived down the street”, a girl he loved like a daughter, Nancy Grissom Gregg. Dardy had the honor of escorting Nancy down the aisle at her wedding.
Stan and Billie would travel the western United States and Canada. In 1982, Stan and Delbert partnered on the construction of their beloved beach house in Cayucos, fulfilling a lifelong dream. Many, many weekends were spent there with family and friends enjoying all the coast had to offer. Nothing put a smile on his face more than when he had his family and friends over to the Cayucos beach house for large cook outs on the terrace overlooking the ocean.
Stan took on one of his biggest projects in the early 1990’s when he began the restoration of the “old Canby house”. He turned the house into a beautiful estate that he loved sharing as a gathering place for family and friends. The “quiet and shy” football captain of days gone by loved nothing more than being the life of the party at these many get-togethers.
In the late 1990’s, Stan handed over the reins of the family business, Canby’s, to the third generation of Canby’s, son Steve and nephew, Doug.
Stan is remembered as hard-working, industrious, gregarious, fun, and big-hearted. He loved his family fiercely and his wife passionately. Being around people he loved was his greatest joy, followed closely by being with his French bulldog, Romeo, time spent on the links (some days the order would change), and making his beloved Costco runs with his treasured friend Lupita to stock up on family favorites and would always come back with too many cans of whip cream and protein shakes!
Stan passed away peacefully at age 94 on April 19, 2026.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Lena and Roland Canby, his brother, Delbert Canby, and his wife of 70 years, Billie Canby.
Stan is survived by his younger sister Susan Ewell, sons Stanley Canby Jr., Steve (June) Canby, and Stuart Canby; grandchildren Brad Canby, Brooke (Shannon) Brown, Erin (Lamine) Thiam, and Amie Canby; great-grandchildren Katlyn (Jacob) Wright, Kelsey (Matt) Lincicum, Andrew (Ana) Canby, Beaujul, Ayessa, and Annah Thaim; great-great-grandchildren Ryleigh and Rhodes Lincicum, Emersyn and Kasen Wright, and Elijah, Austin, and Iesha Canby.
We would also like to recognize and thank Toni Rogers, Rick and Cindy Reyna, and Lupita Gonzales for the special place they held in his life.
Graveside service will take place at 10:30 a.m., Monday, April 27, 2026 at Tulare District Cemetery (Kern). Reception will follow at the Tulare Golf Course.