Chief Walter L. Clemens (1899-1944)

CLEMENS, FERRELL

Posted By: John Davis (email)
Date: 3/2/2020 at 21:06:26

Obit posted in Ottumwa Courier June 10, 1944
Photo posted with the obit
W. Clemens Dies; Chief In U.S. Navy
Walter L. Clemens, 45, below, chief specialist in the Navy shore patrol and a former member of the Ottumwa police department died at 5:20 Saturday at the Naval hospital at Great Lakes, Illinois. He had been in the hospital since April 21, for treatment of a heart ailment. The son of Donald E. and Grace Clemens he was born in Edmond, Oklahoma, June 5, 1899. He had been a resident of Ottumwa since 1926 and was a member of the A.F.& A.M. Masonic lodge of the Myrtle lodge of Seymour and of the Seymour Methodist church. Chief Clemens was married September 5, 1926, to Gertrude L. Ferrell, who survives him. Survivors also include two daughters, Donna Jeanne and Lorraine, and a son Herman S. Clemens in the Navy at San Bruno, California. He was preceded in death by his parents. In May 1927, Clemens joined the Ottumwa police department and was assistant chief of the department when he enlisted in the Navy in October 1942.
Full military funeral services for Walter L. Clemens, chief specialist in the Navy shore patrol and a former member of the Ottumwa police department, will be held from the Johnson funeral chapel at 2 p.m. Thursday. Chief Clemens died at the Naval hospital at Great Lakes, Illinois, last Saturday. In charge of the funeral services will be Chaplain L.L. Booth of the Ottumwa U. S. Naval Air Station. Active pallbearers will be members of the shore patrol unit stationed here. Honorary pallbearers, all of whom are member of the Ottumwa police department will be, Chief Charles F. Kapp, Wilbur Hicks, Otto Dobratz, Charles Elliott, Carl Higdon and Forrest Bennett. Burial will be made in Memorial Lawn cemetery.