W. Max Orr

ORR, DUNCAN, SHOCKEY, STARK, BURNHAM, TAYLOR, WHITE, OLASKA

Posted By: Mari Nielsen - volunteer (email)
Date: 2/8/2010 at 00:27:04

W. MAX ORR

W. Max Orr died on Saturday, January 22, 1994, at Muscatine Care Center at age 88. Memorial services were held Tuesday, January 25, 1994, at 1:30 p.m. at the Geo. M. Wittich-Lewis Funeral Home, officiated by Rev. Pamela Saturnia. Interment was at Columbus City Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the Shriners Children’s Hospital and the American Diabetes Foundation.

Mr. Orr was born March 22, 1905, at Buffalo, Kansas, son of Mahala Duncan Orr and John Lester Orr. Following the death of his mother when he was two, he was raised by his maternal grandfather, William Duncan near Columbus Junction, where he attended school and began his business career.

He married Berniece Irene Shockey, born July 12, 1907 in Clarinda, Iowa, daughter of Elizabeth and Corey Shockey, on September 6, 1930, in Memphis, Tennessee. Berniece Orr died on August 22, 1980, just before their 50th wedding anniversary. On September 9, 1981, Max married Sadie L. Stark in Maricopa County, Arizona. She survives him and now lives in Muscatine. Mr. Orr is also survived by his daughters, Patricia W. Burnham and her husband Robert of East Burke, Vermont and New York City and Kathryn I. Taylor and her husband Clark of Needham, Massachusetts. He also has six grandchildren; Lucinda White, Christopher White, Duncan Burnham, Jeff Taylor, Heidi Olaska, and Ellen Taylor; and six great-grandchildren, as well as several step-children, nephews and cousins. Max was preceded in death by his parents, his first wife, Berniece and one brother, Lester Orr of Columbus Junction, Iowa.

Mr. Orr was Agency Manager for downstate Illinois for the Woodmen Accident and Life Company of Lincoln, Nebraska from 1947 to 1970, when he became a senior representative. He had worked with the company since 1940, serving both in the field and as a senior vice president of the company. He was a member of the National Life Underwriters. Mr. Orr also served as a City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem in Normal, Illinois, and was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Bloomington, Illinois; of the Consistory and the Second Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, as well as both the Peoria, Illinois and Mesa, Arizona Mohammed Shrines. Between 1970 and 1992, he spent several months of the year in Arizona, establishing his final residence in Muscatine, Iowa near his family home and his farm in Columbus Junction, Iowa.

Source: newspaper clipping