Rex HOUGHTALING

HOUGHTALING, SARCHETT, BRAY, THUEM, KOSTELECKY, SMITH, SMITH-BROMLEY, BROMLEY

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/12/2009 at 10:38:02

August 11, 1922 - June 3, 2009

SUBLIMITY, Oregon - Rex Houghtaling lost his long struggle with COPD the evening of June 3, 2009 with his family at his side. Rex was born in Warren County, Iowa, near Indianola, to William Walter Houghtaling and Nora Mae Sarchett Houghtaling on August 11, 1922. He was the eighth of nine children. His mother died when he was six years old, and his father died when he was twelve, leaving him in the care of various relatives until high school graduation in Eagle Grove, Iowa. He met and fell in love with fellow Iowan, Bernice Bray, in Los Angeles where both were working. Following their marriage on June 27, 1943 in Mason City, Iowa, they moved to Washington, first settling in Kingston and later in Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, and Bellevue. Rex had three careers. When his children, Wayne and Norma Jo, were young, he was a bus driver in the greater Seattle area. He retired with the rank of lieutenant as a police officer at the University of Washington. He was proud to recall escorting President John F. Kennedy when he visited the University of Washington campus. In later years he was a realtor. Rex was a Boy Scout leader for many years. He traveled by bus to the National Boy Scout Jamboree in 1960 to Colorado Springs, Colorado with his son, Wayne, and fifty other Boy Scouts. At age 79 he wrote and published his autobiography, Farm Boy. In 2003, he moved to Sublimity to be close to his son and to make friends with everyone in Marian Estates, volunteering his time to anyone in need. His passions were his family, numerous close friends, classical music, the Washington Huskies, jokes and looong stories, fresh produce, very dry martinis, and, the love of his life, Bernice.

Preceding him in death was his beloved wife, Bernice, in 1993; daughter, Norma Jo, in 1990; parents; and seven older brothers and sisters. Left to honor his memory and remember him with love are his son and daughter-in-law, Wayne and Jeanette Houghtaling of Stayton; grandson, Jeff Houghtaling of Portland; sister, Isabell Thuem of Dallas, Texas; granddaughter, Erika Kostelecky of Seattle, Wash.; step-grandchildren, Meryl Smith-Bromley of Sublimity and Evan Smith of Stayton; great-grandson, Devin Kostelecky of Seattle, Wash.; step-great-grandchildren, Grace and Owen Bromley; and numerous nieces and nephews. At Rex's request there will be no service.

Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon
June 10, 2009