If Tony Sarlls could find a way to laugh, or make someone else laugh, he would. It's how he got himself and others over some hard times.

Laughing became a lot harder a couple of months ago. Tony was diagnosed with lung cancer.

His wife, Paula, believes that her husband was a casualty of the Vietnam War, blaming his cancer on exposure to Agent Orange.

He was a supply sergeant in Da Nang when the enemy blew up a building where the chemical defoliant was stored. Tony figured he was exposed to Agent Orange then and possibly on missions to outlying villages where it had been sprayed, Paula said.

Tony died Jan. 11. He was 62.

He was born April 21, 1946, in Houston to Walter and Rosemary Semmons Sarlls.

He graduated from Conroe High School in Texas in 1964. He attended Sam Houston College about 18 months before joining the Marines.

"He was very patriotic," Paula said.

He served two tours in Vietnam, mostly to save his kid brother, David, from the war.

Before his first tour, he was serving in Tennessee when he met Paula, who was working as a clerk until the Marines sent her to air traffic controller school.

"I felt someone staring at me," she said. "I looked at him. And he winked at me."

He asked her out. She said yes. They went bowling.

"When he dropped me off after, he gave me a big Clark Gable kiss. And I said, 'I'm going to marry him,' " Paula said.

They were married March 16, 1969, in Arvada.

She went to school. He went to Vietnam.

"His brother was in Vietnam on the front lines. So Tony invoked the Sullivan Act and got his brother sent home so he could serve instead," Paula said.

The Sullivan Act was named in honor of five brothers who were killed in World War II while serving on the same ship. The law prevented siblings from serving in the same theater of war.

Tony was honorably discharged in February 1970. He and Paula settled in Houston, where he became a drywaller.

They moved to Aurora in 1988 because Paula's job with U.S. Customs transferred her to Colorado.

Tony fit right in as a good neighbor.

"He was always willing to help people. Once, the kids across the street - their dog got hit by a car and died," Paula said.

Tony loaded up the young people and injured dog in his car and drove them to a veterinarian.

"He helped them see which way to go," Paula said. "Somebody else might have just walked away."

When winter storms hit the neighborhood, Tony shoveled walks for those who were unable.

"He taught a lot of people how to drywall their basement," Paula said. "He'd do it for nothing."

And he made people laugh.

When Paula's father was dying 10 years ago, Tony had just gotten a new set of false teeth.

"We'd been running around all over. And Tony was very tired," Paula said. "He came home to take a nap. He had his false teeth in his hand. And the dog chewed them up and ate them. Tony came to hospital. He made funny faces without his teeth. We all laughed. It made it a lot easier for us to bear."

You might recall the story of Paula and Tony in this column in 2007. A serviceman was called to duty in Iraq and was worried about his dog, Meathead. So Tony and Paula took in the dog.

"He has been reunited with his owner and all's well," Paula said.

In addition to Tony's wife, survivors include one daughter, Suzanne Hartwell, of Battle Creek, Mich., and one brother, David, of Houston.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Olinger Moore Howard, West 46th Avenue and Tennyson Street.

massarog@RockMountain News.com or 303-954-5271

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