Robert Earl Wacheldorf 1930-2005

WACHELDORF JACOBS, EICKHOLT

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 11/10/2009 at 00:12:08

Sioux City Journal
9 December 2005

Robert Earl Wacheldorf, 75, of Sioux City, formerly of Sergeant Bluff, died Monday, Dec. 5, 2005, at Countryside Senior Living following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Services will be 10 a.m. Saturday at Christy-Smith Morningside Chapel, with Terry Burns officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be 3 to 8 p.m. today with the family present 6 to 8 p.m., at the funeral home.

Robert was born April 15, 1930, in Danbury, Iowa, the son of Emil and Leona (Jacobs) Wacheldorf. He attended school in Mapleton, Iowa. He later joined the U.S. Army and served as a mechanic and truck driver during the Korean Conflict from 1951 to 1953. He was discharged from the service and served five years as a reservist.

He married in 1953 and later divorced. To this union were born a son, Ronald, and a daughter, Cindy Ohlendorf. He also raised his wife's niece, Jeanna Pelchat.

On March 25, 1967, he married Kathleen "Kathy" Eickholt. This union was blessed with a daughter, Shelley. He was a professional truck driver for most of his life. He was known on the road as "Sneaky Snake." He drove for Swift Dairy and Poultry for several years, surviving a hijacking and kidnapping in New York City in 1969. He then was employed with Marx Truck Line from 1977 to 1982. He became an owner/operator leased to Ace Lines. In 1982, he returned to Marx Truck Line, where he remained until retiring in 1995. In 1992, he received the Million Mile Award without a preventable accident.

He was a professional wrestling and Cubs fan.

Survivors include his wife, Kathy Wacheldorf of Sioux City; a son and his wife, Ronald and Starla Wacheldorf; three daughters, Cindy and her husband, Brad Ohlendorf, Jeanna and her husband, Bill Pelchat, and Shelley Wacheldorf; his grandchildren, Gary Wacheldorf, Amber and Jesse Holmes, Drew Ohlendorf and Megan Ohlendorf; a brother and his wife, Richard and Sherri Wacheldorf of Columbus, Neb.; three sisters, Judy Riley of Mapleton, Iowa, Norma and her husband, Robert Marsh, of Castana, Iowa, and Phyllis Reinbold of Sioux City; a sister-in-law, Margaret Wacheldorf; and numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; two brothers, Elmer and Leonard Wacheldorf; a sister, Deloris "Tootie" Thiel; three brothers-in-law, Donald "Smiley" Thiel, Morris Riley and Richard Reinbold; and a sister-in-law, Darlene (Leisinger) Wacheldorf.

Pallbearers will be Dan Mathey, Dean Mathey, Dusty Mathey, Gerald Leibrich, Wayne Petit and Larry Mosier. Honorary pallbearers will be Marty Weepie, Vince Johnson, Dick Mathey and Bill Jessen.