Halstead, Keith D. 1923-2000

HALSTEAD, LARSEN, BRYAN, TRACEY, HEETHER

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 10/25/2009 at 11:21:30

Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; April 27, 2000

KEITH HALSTEAD

Keith D. Halstead, 77, of Bethany, Mo., formerly of Grinnell, died Sunday, April 23, at Harrison County Community Hospital in Bethany.

Funeral services were held Wednesday at the Smith Funeral Home, with burial in Hazelwood Cemetery.

The son of Leonard and Anna Larsen Halstead, he was born April 13, 1923, in Jasper County. He was raised in Grinnell and was a graduate of Grinnell High School and the University of Iowa.

He was a flight engineer on a B-17 bomber during World War II, serving with the Army Air Corps' 381st Bomber Group in England. He flew 35 combat missions over Europe.

He was married to Clara Bryan Dec. 20, 1947, in Grinnell. He was in the livestock trucking business in Grinnell with his brother, Kenneth, for seven years. In 1959, he joined State Auto & Casualty Insurance Co. and served for 11 years as a surpervisor, calling on insurance agents in Missouri. He returned to the company office in Des Moines in 1970 and became vice president and agency manager. He moved to Bethany in 1975 and operated the Green Hills Insurance Agency as an independent agent.

He was a member of the Bethany Chamber of Commerce and the Bethany United Methodist Church and was a Paul Harris Fellow in Rotary. He served on the United Fund board and was active in the Red Cross.

Surviving are his wife; one daughter, Kayce Tracey of Nacogdoches, Texas; two sons, Chris of Ankeny and Kurt of Pacifica, Calif.; one brother, Kenneth of Grinnell; one sister, Helen Heether of Angola, Ind.; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

His parents, two brothers and two sisters preceded him in death.