C. Wayne Benton, 1921-1998

BENTON, KIMSEY, BOHLKEN

Posted By: Peggy Mayberry Powell (email)
Date: 10/12/2018 at 16:35:46

C. Wayne Benton, 1921-1998

Sioux City Journal, Sioux City, Iowa, after November 25, 1998

C. Wayne Benton, 76, of Sioux City died Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1998 at a Sioux City hospital.

Services will be 2 p.m. today at Morningside Lutheran Church with the Rev. Jon Gerdts and Pastor Kevin Lee officiating. There will be a private family burial at Memorial Park Cemetery prior to services at the church. Christy-Smith Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Benton was born Dec. 22, 1921 on a farm south of Oto, Iowa, the son of Edward Herbert and Bernice (Kimsey) Benton. He graduated from Oto Public High School in 1940. He served in the United States Army for three years during World War II. He was a staff sergeant in the 70th Infantry Division and was awarded the Purple Heart.

He received a bachelor’s degree from Wayne State Teachers College in 1947 and a master’s degree from the University of Wyoming in 1952. He had an additional 30 hours of graduate work from the University of Colorado.

He married Neva J. Bohlken on Aug. 11, 1947 in Coleridge, Neb. They lived in Osmond, Neb., Plainview, Neb. and Hornick, Iowa before coming to Sioux City in 1963.

He was involved in education for 41 years, 39 of them as a school administration. He taught and coached in Osmond for two years, was a high school principal in Plainview for four years and was a superintendent at Hornick for two years and became the elementary principal when that district became a part of the Westwood Community Schools.

In 1963, he started a 25 year career as an elementary principal in the Sioux City Public School System at Bryant, Sunnyside, Cooper and Longfellow, retiring in 1988.

Survivors include his wife; one daughter and her husband, Mary Jo and Rod Ruppert of Cherokee, Iowa; two sons and their wives, Robert and Carla of St. Charles, Ill. and Gary and Sue of Stilwell, Kansas; four sisters and their husbands, Donna and Kenneth Stratton of Oto, Iowa, Maurine and Dr. Clem Becker of Alton, Iowa, Clara and Harlan Bolte of Oto and Vera and Maurice Collins of Anthon; two brothers and their wives, Keith and Dorothy of Marcus and Oren and Beverly of Denver, Colo.; six grandchildren and his mother-in-law, Theresa Bohlken of Coleridge, Neb.

He was preceded in death by his parents.