Walter Henry

Walter Ervin Henry, 103, of Bettendorf, passed away on Monday, February 13, 2017 at the Clarissa C. Cook Hospice House in Bettendorf.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, February 17, 2017 at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Bettendorf.  Visitation will be held from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday evening and from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on Friday at the church.  Memorials may be made to Our Savior Lutheran Church or to Lutheran Hour Ministries.  Burial will be in Davenport Memorial Park.

Walter was born February 8, 1914 in Daykin, Nebraska, the son of William J. & Lulu L. (Brinkman) Henry.  Walter attended Farm Operations classes at the University of Nebraska from 1933 to 1934.  He had farmed for several years after high school before becoming a foreman at a farm in Hinton, Iowa for 8 ½ years.  He became good friends with a pastor of the Missouri Synod church and taught Sunday school.  The pastor had convinced Walter to move to Davenport to become a shoemaker with a dairy shoe business until 1949.  Walter was employed as a sheet metal worker and machine operator at Minneapolis-Moline until 1954, and then with the Herman Nelson division of American Air Filter until his retirement in 1982.

Walter met Alta Zoa Hann who had lived next door and their first two dates were on a plane.  He had learned to fly while living in Hinton.  He was united in marriage to Alta on May 27, 1949 in Davenport.  She preceded him in death on March 30, 2005 after 56 years of marriage.

Walter was a faithful member of Our Savior Lutheran Church where he had taught Sunday school and was an Elder, greeter, reader, communion assistant, outreach caller and sang in the choir for many years.  He was an active member of the Plus 60 club and took multiple bus trips with the club. He enjoyed gardening, fishing and traveling, having visited Niagara Falls, the Panama Canal, Hawaii, the Montreal Exposition of 1967 and the Great Lakes region. He played cards twice weekly at the Bettendorf Senior Center and enjoyed dancing to polka, big band, accordion and clarinet music and Hawaiian music.

Walter had taken pump organ lessons as a child and had played clarinet in high school and accordion later in life.

Walter was interviewed by Fran Riley of KWQC for his 102nd birthday and celebrated his birthday with over 100 preschool children singing for him at Our Savior.  When asked by Mr. Riley what his secret to longevity was, he responded by saying “The Lord has been good to me!”

Amongst the innovations he had experienced in his lifetime was the transition from horses to steam engines to tractors in farming, wooden stoves to modern appliances, Victrola record players to 8-track tapes to cassettes to CDs, keeping food in a cave to ice boxes to refrigerators and telephones from hand cranking to multi-person lines with switchboard operators to modern phones.

Those left to honor his memory include his daughter, Anna Louise (Rod) Myers of Prescott, Arizona; his sons, Michael Allen Henry of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Donald Ervin Henry of Anchorage, Alaska and David Lee (Marion) Henry of Rochester, Minnesota; his grandchildren, Thomas (Amber) Henry, Kevin (Alyssa) Myers, Kelly Myers, Heidi Myers, Tiffany Henry & Amber Henry; his great-grandchildren, Liam and Addison Henry; and his special friend and dancing partner, Alida Starcevich.

In addition to his wife, Walter was preceded in death by his parents; his sister, Elinore; his brothers, Wesley and Wayne; and his grandson, Jeremy Myers.