CMELIK, Water

CMELIK, FRIERICH, VENEGA, STOWELL, STICKROD, GIRLOFF, GENKINS

Posted By: Lynette Edsall (email)
Date: 9/6/2006 at 12:31:20

Walter Cmelik, 73, of 908 W. Cedar, Cherokee, Iowa, died Sunday May 7, 2006 at his home in Wahpeton, Iowa.

Services will be Wednesday May 10, 2006 at 11:00 A.M. at the Greenwood Funeral Home in Cherokee. Pastor James Steen will officiate. Visitation will be Tuesday from 4:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. at the Greenwood Funeral Home with family present from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M. In lieu of flowers, memorials are requested.

Walter was born on July 27, 1932, to Frank and Margaret (Frierich) Cmelik in Waverly, Iowa. He graduated from Waverly High School in 1950. Following High School, Walt served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. On March 21, 1958, he married DeAnna Venenga at the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Wellsburg, Iowa. They moved to Waterloo where Walter worked at John Deere and also attended Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls. In 1960, they moved to Tama, Iowa where he helped his father run his butcher shop. In 1961, they moved to Cherokee where he worked at Jesse’s Fine Meats, Cherokee Block Factory, Lundell’s, and then retiring from Wilson’s Foods in 1995 after 33 years of service.

Walter also helped his wife with her day care business for 44 years and was lovingly known by many kids in Cherokee as “Papa Walt”. They enjoyed many foster children through the years. Walt was known for his T-shirts, jeans, baseball cap and “his old nylon jacket”. He was an avid sportsman, and really enjoyed hunting and fishing with his sons, grandsons, and granddaughters. Walt and DeAnna enjoyed traveling all over the world; they went on many cruises, their last one being an Alaskan Cruise in 2005. He was very good at woodworking, and liked to tinker in his garden, and trying to grow many new plants and trees. He was a member of the AFL-CIO, a 15 year member of the Cherokee County Chapter of Pheasants Forever, NRA, and the North American Hunting Club.

Survivors include his wife; 3 sons, Mike Cmelik, and his wife, Karen, of Clear Lake, Iowa; Mark Cmelik, and his wife, Lisa, of Aurelia, Iowa; Tim Stowell, and his wife, Vonda, of Cherokee, Iowa; grandchildren, Matt, Melissa, and Lorelei Cmelik; Scott, Whitney, and Chrysta Cmelik; Veronica Stickrod, and her husband, Brian, Derrick Stowell; a great-grandson, Connor Stickrod; brothers, LaRay Cmelik, of Mapleton, Iowa; Frank Cmelik, and his wife, Nancy, of Morengo, Iowa; aunts, Arvella Girloff and Margie Genkins; uncle, Harvey Venenga; a brother-in-law, Bernard Gene Venenga; and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, brothers, (Virg, Paul. Robert, Jody, and 3 in infancy), sisters, (Vonnie, Dorothy, Winston), a sister-in-law (Carol Cmelik)