Hanson, Willard Laverne (1919-1999)

HANSON, OLSON, SAMPSON, QUAM, NEWTON, ERBES, MILLER, KNAPP

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 12/12/2020 at 10:52:02

Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, Iowa, Thursday, April 22, 1999

Willard Hanson, 79, Ames, died Wednesday, April 21, 1999 at Bethany Manor in Story City. Funeral services will be 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Ellsworth with Rev. Mike Herschberger and Rev. Orville Sanderson to officiate. Burial will follow at Homewood Cemetery north of Ellsworth. Visitation will be Thursday from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Becker Funeral Home.

Willard Laverne Hanson was born July 31, 1919 in Ellsworth to Harry Christian and Mabel Susan Olson Hanson. He graduated from Ellsworth High School in 1937. He was a veteran of World War II, serving in the U.S. Army in the Sicilian Naples Foggia, Rome-Arno Tunesian campaigns. After the war, he returned to Ellsworth where he owned and operated Co-op Filling Station and Bulk Fuel Trucking Service. On June 8, 1952 he married Esther Darlene Sampson at the Zion Lutheran Church near Radcliffe. In 1969, he went to work for the Ames Post Office. They moved to Ames in 1977. He retired in 1986. He was active in his church and was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Ellsworth and Bethesda Lutheran in Ames. He served as president of the Business and Men's Association and served on the town council. He was also a member of the American Legion.

Survivors are his wife Esther of Ames, two sons Greg and Frank of Ames, a daughter and son-in-law Cyndy and Steve Quam of Urbandale, four grandsons Scott, Seth, Shaun and Samuel; two sisters Helen Newton of Iowa Falls and Ruth Erbes of Ellsworth. He was preceded in death by his brothers Donald, Mervin and Curtis and three sisters Ione Hanson, Mildred Miller and Doris Knapp.