William Oral Kenney

KENNEY, LAUGHLIN, PELHAM, SWINGEN, PETERSON, LINDELL, BAKER

Posted By: Phyllis Peterson (email)
Date: 1/2/2012 at 13:22:12

William O. Kenney, 90, of Edgewood, Iowa, died Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at the Edgewood Convalescent Home.

William Oral Kenney was born on September 28, 1920, the third of four sons born to Klearence and Esther Laughlin Kenney. He was raised on a farm near Postville area and graduated from Postville High School in 1939. He then attended Iowa State College where he majored in agriculture. He left college and enlisted in the Navy in 1942.

On November 21, 1944, he married his college sweetheart Esther Pelham at Beaumont, California. After World War II he returned to Iowa State and completed his degree in 1947. He taught at Yuba City, Hamilton City and Laton, California before returning to Iowa in 1952. He lived in McGregor and taught at Mar-Mac from 1952-1956, and then moved to Edgewood where he taught agriculture at Edgewood High School and later Ed-Co High School. William was the advisor for the Future Farmers of America Chapters at these schools. He retired from teaching in 1983.

After retirement he volunteered at the Edgewood Convalescent Home, judged at county fairs, and traveled. In June 2006 he moved into Lincolnwood Assisted Living and in January 2011 he moved to the Edgewood Convalescent Home, where he died on Wednesday, March 2, 2011.

He was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church, a 50-year member of the Masons, and a member of the Order of Eastern Star and Pythians.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Esther in 1995, and his brothers Carleton (1943) and Robert (1991).

He is survived by his three children, Judyth (Richard) Swingen of Arkansas, Phyllis (Buddy Underwood) Peterson of New Mexico, and David (Amber) of Georgia, brother John (Nancy) of California, grandsons Eric Peterson, Mark Underwood, and William Kenney, great-granddaughters Jena and Jade Peterson, sister-in-laws Elaine Kenney, Dorothy Lindell, and Darline Baker and brother-in-laws Quentin Lindell and Harold Pelham, and numerous nieces and nephews.