Robert L. Altmyer, whose Altmyer Farm Market in Marshall kept customers supplied with fresh fruit, produce and flowers for more than 40 years, died Tuesday of pulmonary illness at Allegheny General Hospital Suburban Campus in Bellevue. He was 86, and had lived on the farm his entire life.

The land was acquired in the 1850s by Mr. Altmyer's grandparents, said his granddaughter, Julie Clerici of Cranberry, who grew up working at the market.

Over the years, she said, acreage was bought and sold, going as high as 200 acres when Mr. Altmyer's parents ran it as a dairy and livestock operation to as low as the current size of 25 acres. Her grandfather closed the market in 1996.

He grew up helping his parents on the farm and left school after finishing the eighth grade at St. Alphonsus School to work there full-time. His only break from farming came during World War II, when he joined the Army and served in France, at least part of that time as a rifleman.

After an honorable discharge in 1946, he returned to the farm. He and his wife, Nelrose Diehl Altmyer, worked together growing fruit and vegetables and raising three daughters.

The widening of Route 910 off of Route 19 in the 1950s presented a golden opportunity, and he opened the farm market to take advantage of the increased traffic.

"Almost all the business was people who'd come from nearby to buy," Ms. Clerici said. "In summer he sold all kinds of produce -- apples, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce. In the fall and winter it was apples and cider. In spring he opened his greenhouses to sell annual and perennial flowers he planted himself."

Her grandfather had a natural green thumb, she said.

"He'd been farming since he was old enough to stand and he knew how to grow anything. He could tell you whether there would be an early frost or a late snow, and he was always right. It was just instinctual."

The farm made him a good living, she said, but eventually it became too much for him to keep it going.

"It was harder and harder to find field hands," Ms. Clerici said. "Nobody goes into agriculture any more."

Even after closing the market, Mr. Altmyer kept cutting the grass and taking care of the place. His wife died in 2007.

Ms. Clerici said he passed his love of growing things on to her late mother, Linda Bashaar.

"My mother would plant over 40 flats of flowers every year at her home and she always had her own vegetable garden," she said. "She learned all the secrets from her father."

Mr. Altmyer belonged to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion Post 161.

In addition to his granddaughter, he is survived by two daughters, Janet Altmyer Stevens of Las Vegas and Susan Coupens of Collierville, Tenn., and three other grandchildren.

Visitation will be 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow and 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. on Sunday at George A. Thoma Funeral Home, Inc., 10418 Perry Highway. A blessing service will take place at 11 a.m. Monday at the funeral home.

The family suggests memorial donations to American Legion Post 161, P.O. Box 94, Wexford, PA 15090, for the Aspinwall VA Hospital Comfort and Entertainment Fund.