Clayton LaVerne Waterbury 1926 - 2016

SWANSON, WATERBURY, MORRIS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen - volunteer (email)
Date: 3/14/2016 at 17:29:25

Sioux City Journal
1 March 2016

SERGEANT BLUFF | Clayton L. Waterbury, 89, of Sergeant Bluff passed away Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, at his residence.

Services will be 10 a.m. Wednesday at Waterbury Funeral Service of Sioux City, with the Rev. Merrill Muller officiating. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery, Akron, Iowa, with military rites provided by the U.S. Army. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m., at the funeral home.

Clayton LaVerne Waterbury was born on April 18, 1926, in Sioux City, the son of Dr. Clifton H. and Ruth Swanson Waterbury. At a young age, his parents moved to Washington state, where he attended school and later worked in a plywood mill. After his first airplane ride while in the state of Washington, Clayton was determined to become a pilot. He received his private pilot's license in 1947. He and his uncle, Raymond Waterbury, flew from Washington to Iowa in a small plane without a working radio in 1951. It was truly a fly by the seat of your pants experience as they followed railroad tracks and highways to find their way to Iowa.

In 1951, after spending three weeks in Alaska salmon fishing, Clayton moved back to Iowa. In 1952, he met his future wife, Mary Lou Morris, after the separate cars they were riding in collided at a busy intersection in Des Moines. Clayton and Mary Lou were married on Sept. 23, 1952, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Also in 1952, Clayton entered the U.S. Army, serving our country during the Korean War.

In the early 1960s while still working as a Continental Trailways bus driver, Clayton started a casket making factory in Glenwood, Iowa. In 1968 he obtained his commercial pilot's license, then his air taxi commercial operator certificate from the FAA. Clayton then started Waterbury Air Service in Hamburg, Iowa, which later moved to Corning, Iowa. His air service utilized a 1964 U206 Cessna Super Skywagon, which flew all over the United States, transporting human remains for funeral homes, plus critically ill patients and other passengers.

As a bus driver, he drove more than one million accident free miles, receiving recognition from the bus company. His tenure at Continental Trailways lasted for 33 years. The casket factory specialized in hand manufactured wood caskets and later expanded by adding metal caskets to its inventory.

In 1985, Clayton was forced to retire from the workplace, and unfortunately, flying, as a result of macular degeneration, a progressive sight stealing disease of the eyes.

Post retirement, Clayton enjoyed spending time with his 10 grandchildren, learning how to brew beer, collecting casino memorabilia and coins, and teaching his dog Heidi how to talk and count. Clayton and a friend also rebuilt and refinished a jukebox, and along with his wife, Mary Lou, wrote a brief autobiography of his earlier years in Alaska, and his experiences as a pilot. They moved to Sergeant Bluff in 2004.

Clayton is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary Lou; sons, Roger (Saundra) of Sergeant Bluff, and Bruce (Debbie) of Bremerton, Wash.; daughters, Pamela (Wally) Wheeler of Covina, Calif., and Shirley (Walter) Odinas of Las Vegas, Nev.; 10 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his son, Douglas; his parents; and his sister, Joyce Waterbury Geri.