Earnest “Gypsy” Crooks, Jr., age 87 of Canby, MN passed away on Saturday, April 24, 2021 at the USD Sanford Medical Center in Sioux Falls. Memorial service will be at 10:00a.m. on Thursday, April 29th at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Canby, MN. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church. Houseman Funeral Home of Canby, MN is entrusted with the arrangements.

Earnest Lee Roy Crooks, Jr. was born May 13, 1933 in Wichita, Kansas to parents Earnest and Sarah (Girard) Crooks. He lived in various places throughout his life including Kansas, Washington, California and Oregon before he moved to Canby, Minnesota in June of 1999. He spent the remainder of his life in Canby. He loved motorcycles and he traveled across the country several times with his sleeping bag and motorcycle. He loved being outdoors. He could spend days camping, fishing and sleeping under the stars. He was an amazing storyteller and would share stories of his life’s adventures with anyone that listened. He enjoyed reading almost anything and went through several books a week. He always said he lived a new life in every book he read.  He did excellent work with leather and often did the tooling free-hand. His heart was fullest when surrounded by his family.

Earnest is survived by the family he loved: Kris Karloski, Canby MN, T.J. Proctor (Teresa Menk), San Tan Valley, AZ, Karen (Keith) Koerner, Albany, OR, Christopher Hundt, Canby, MN, Kailey Karloski, Canby, MN, Andrew (Nicky) Proctor, Madison, MN, Mellanni (Josh) Murphy, Canby, MN and seven great-grandchildren.