Maddy Perry reads something
Keith Sings
Walter R. Suhling, Jr. age 89 of Perry, Illinois passed away last Wednesday at Heritage Health, Therapy and Senior Care here in Mt Sterling. He was born July 24, 1924 in Calhoun County, Illinois the son of Walter R. and Mary Blanche Christner Suhling.
He married Mary Frances Wilson on August 14, 1948 at the First Christian Church in Mt. Sterling and she survives. But considering her children, it’s a wonder she’s survived this long. They lived next to Wayne Mountains’ and Mark stole Mary Ellen and Peggy’s kittens…took them to his house. Mary said it wasn’t long when the front door came flying open and the kittens came running home, followed by Mark. Wayne said he didn’t want “them damn cats” at his house.
Walter retired in 2006 from Dot Foods, Inc. after 20 years as an over-the-road driver.
Young Walt thought his dad might like to take a trip on a barge as a sort of early birthday present. His brother Roger told him he’d better check with Dad first. Walter said, “No! That’s dangerous!” Which brings me to the next item in his obituary. He attained the position of captain working for a barge line in Havana.
He farmed and worked with Dad at Perry Farm Equipment Company. He was pulled over while driving a company truck near Roseville…too wide. The state cop of Joyce Wade’s husband. Walter said, “I was hurrying to get down to Macomb to get a motel.” The cop said, “You passed one a block ago.” Years later after both were retired he ran into the cop at Branson. Walter still wouldn’t shake his hand.
He graduated from Kampsville High School with the Class of 1942. Walter was a veteran of World War II having served his country in the United States Navy where he attained the rank of Motor Machinist's Mate Second Class. Best advice young Walt received from his dad before he went in service was get your hair cut before you go. Another guy in same unit shows up with hair down to his shoulders and little round glasses. One of the drill instructors said they had the best group in the place because they had Jesus Christ with them and from then on the guy was called Jesus. And anyone after that was called the same thing. So that is why you should wear your hair short.
Walter was a former member of the First Christian Church in Mt. Sterling. He was an over 50 year member of the Perry American Legion Post # 1040, the Perry Masonic Lodge and the Pittsfield Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. In fact, recently elected Worthy Patron, but then took ill and wasn’t actually installed. And he and dad were given honorary membership in the El Dara and New Salem lodges because every time they needed help or the roads got too bad for the younger members to attend,Walter and Dad would show up.
Walter was devoted to the village of Perry where he served as the Perry village clerk, was a member of the Perry Fire Department and served on the Perry School Board for several years. Walt III said they’d just moved to town and his dad was on the fire department. That night the call went out and Walter took off. He son waited up for him to ask how it went. Walter said, “We showed up and Dosh showed up. Dosh saved the foundation and we saved the basement.”
And I can’t believe you left out something so spectacular, Mr. Hendricker, but he was Perry’s best lawn mower mechanic. Worked on Pat Smith’s lawn mower for two days and charged her ten dollars…said he felt guilty about it taking so long. He was a regular at the Perry Methodist Monday lunches…even when they were having chicken, which Walter wouldn’t eat. He mowed the Legion Hall yard at no cost for years… once mowed Dad’s yard when Dad went to Alaska. And…knowing their relationship….Dad told people he had to mow it all over again to clean up Walter’s mistakes.
Survivors include his wife Mary of Perry, Illinois. 4 children Walter III (my co-manager of the Perry High school basketball team) and his wife Diana of Griggsville, Illinois, …….Roger of Mt. Sterling, …….Mary Ellen Craig and her husband Paul of Perry……and Peggy Perry and her husband Ed of Mt. Sterling.
8 grandchildren: Tracy Flowers and her husband Jamie, Jeri Lyn Howell and her husband Booky, Reggie Suhling, Kimber Martin and her husband Michael, Kellen Craig, Kollin Craig and his wife Brittany and Joseph and Maddy Perry. 4 great grandchildren Makenzie Flowers, Ethan and Evan Howell and Hattie Martin also survive along with 1 sister-in-law Corda Lee Suhling of Pittsfield, 2 nieces and 1 nephew.
He was preceded in death by his parents, 1 daughter Cherry Lyn Suhling and 1 brother Joseph Adrian Suhling.
Facebook can be awfully handy at times…I Facebooked Mary Ellen and Peggy….and I think that many of them met Thursday at Walt and Mary’s house and had one heck of a good time reliving memories…I’ll share some of them with you. . .
Kimber …where are you? You win the prize for being the first to respond. I’m going to give you Mr. Hendricker’s big black car when the service is over today… In my mind, Grandpa will always be one of the most peaceful people I've ever known. I've tried to remember a time when I saw him angry or losing his temper and absolutely nothing comes to mind. He was always able to express his frustrations in a way that was quietly effective. All he had to do was give you a look. He never wanted to tell the grandkids "no". And I don't mean that in a spoiled rotten way, but like in standing out in the yard playing ball for hours on end just to make us happy. I can remember Mom telling us not to make Grandpa get out there and pitch to us because he was old. I could never understand what she meant by old because Grandpa did not act old. He was probably about 68 or 69 and was the furthest thing from the definition of old that I knew.
Kellen Craig…sorry Kellen, I’ve already given away the hearse..: I remember his belt coiled up on the dining room table with his watch next to it. He at one end and Grandma at the other. Always a shirt pocket full of peppermint candies. The wooden rifles he made. His underhand football toss that was always a spiral. The big wave from the front porch every time I’d pull in mom and dad’s drive. Eating fish at Time Out and getting scratch off tickets. Ordering O’Douls and salting his beer. Patching the roof of the Masonic Lodge. Always ending our phone calls saying he was proud of me and to always keep on working hard. The little things.
Mary Ellen talked about her dad…. He was the best dad a girl could have. He was a rock and a pillar just not for me but my mom and brothers and sisters. I can't say enough about the things he did for the community that a lot of people didn't know about or realize. He loved Perry.
Again from Kimber…(I may give you this whole house) I love that he was always tinkering with things. Sometimes I think he and your dad had a secret old school Pinterest page for their creations. They came up with things long before there was an Internet available to Google ideas on. One of my favorite Grandpa products are the seats he made out of 5 gallon buckets. Mom still has a couple that I used when I taught a 3-year-old classroom. The place we go for haircuts has one and it's where Hattie sat for her 1st haircut. I remember when he first made them for us and Kollin was still little. He told Grandpa he needed somewhere to put his "stuff". Grandpa put a hole in the bucket seat just big enough for a little hand that provided all kinds of storage for treasures. Maddy Perry also remembers the bucket seats: Yeah Joe and I still have our bucket seats. I always thought I was favored more between Joe and I just because I got carpet on my bucket seat.
Kimber again…(I wonder if Hendricker owns a farm?). Grandpa was very supportive/encouraging when it came to higher education. Shortly after I graduated from Culver he asked me when I was going to go back to school. I told him I just finished 17 years worth of school and he just shrugged his shoulders in a "So, when are you going back for more?," Mary Ellen said that her dad built young Walt a pole vault pit but Walt was having trouble getting over the bar. His dad came up told his son that he used to vault. Young Walt didn’t believe it. Walter said, “I can vault over your head,” and he did. And Walter once told his boy that he could beat him down the gravel road and they took off running. When the boy stopped to look back to see what had happened to his dad, Walter zoomed past him.
Kollin Craig: I've always enjoyed looking at any old pictures of Grandpa and I. There's one where I'm little, (footie pajamas little) and he's working on something and I'm right there beside him. Probably more of a hinderance than a helper, but he didn't mind. He always tried imparting knowledge on me and looking back I wish I had paid more attention. I'll always remember putting up the flags with him at the park for Memorial Day, eating dinner on Mondays at the Church, always asking him to tell me about his times during the war.
And then there were the things that popped up in many of their conversations…popcorn…semis….John Deeres…lawnmowers…chips with squeeze cheese (called Grandpa’s Nachos) ….cheese balls…his love for his grandkids…buying a knife for grandson who was too young to buy it himself…(and until someone shared this on Facebook Thursday, his parents didn’t know it yet)
The memories of Perry Facebook page….it’s gone viral…every day, new pictures and as soon as a new picture appears, the comments start rolling in…. Glenn Hazilrigg coming around the front of an old Plymouth in front of Arvis Jenning’s gas station. Floyd Hannant serving ice cream to C.L. Kirkton out behind Dexter school Loren and Helen Waters…Loren with his hat as its usual crooked angle Coach Bill Roberts speaking for the graduates of 1967 with Winnie Browning sitting in the front row. I think we sat by class rank. I was somewhere behind the curtain. Gwen Woods, Mary Tedrow Donna Hannant and others on a class trip to Springfield. Dorothy Johnson at Dexter. Mary Ellen Orr, Bob White, Gail Emerson… The years and years of basketball teams and classes lined up in rows on old Perry bleachers, posing for the yearbook. You post a picture and within an hour you may have a dozen people sharing their memories. This morning Keith posted a picture of a guy driving his horse and steel-wheeled wagon in front of Walter and Dad’s place, Perry Farm Equipment and by the end of the day people were speculating on whether it was Lyndle Waters…It was Archie Wilson. Really good people…the people we like…are kept alive by our memories, so Walt’s place is assured in our community.
My former students come up to me 30 years later and say, “Mr. Bradbury, do you remember when I got in trouble with you….so and so?” I say, “Of course!” …and I’m lying. It’s not that my memory’s that bad, but the good memories always seem to outlast the bad. In his Julius Caesar, Shakespeare said, “The evil men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.” Which just goes to show you that Shakespeare didn’t grow up in Perry or Mt. Sterling. I could spring a name of a wonderful person from your past on any of you and I guarantee you that your first thought would be of a kindness, of a service they did to you…of a time they gave of themselves and the world got better.
Walter believed firmly in the principles of Freemasonry, the chief of which is that the best way to serve God is to serve your fellow man. Walter will best be remembered by the service he gave…to his family, to the firemen, the Legion, to his friends….to all of us. To that we say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
From Ecclesiastes: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. We are so blessed that Walter Suhling lived in our time.
Last June the family had a baby shower and Walter came over to do one his favorite jobs…get the fire pit going. He decided they needed more wood so the 89-year-old Walter found an axe and started chopping away on some logs. Some of the youngest members of the family were enthralled. They’d never seen wood chopped. Later, little Conor was running around asking for The Axe Guy. When Conor was told this week that Grandpa had passed away, he told his mom that if Walter took his axe with him he could probably still cut down trees in heaven,. ….and mow yards…. And steer barges…and fix lawnmowers…and make the world a happier place for all of us. Kimber reminded me of one of Walter’s signature moves…She called it, “The Big Wave.” One arm brought up very slowly. (do it) Goodbye Walter.
Cemetery…ironic….so many afternoons spent with Walter right here or in the McCord Cemetery across the road. Trumpet… road with Legion boys Walter usually in the rifle squad. One morning…much colder….preacher from Fishhook. Brother somebody. Seems like all the Fishhook ministers had the same name…Brother. LONG! Ride back, Walter said, “I saw his pant leg when he got in the hearse. Never a trust a preacher wearing long johns.”
One very memorable…I’d stand on the far side of the gun line… couldn’t help but make eye-contact with Walter. “Attention!” Eyes wide! Ready, aim, Fire! (3X) Walter mouthed, “I think I got one!” Any idea how hard it is to play Taps when you’re thinking about that?
From Isaiah: Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you Second Corinthians 5:1 “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
And God looks down upon us today and said, “I think I got one!” Pray with me…