William H. HALE

HALE, THOMPSON, ECKHEART, JOHNSTON, LARSEN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 12/21/2009 at 09:38:17

December 30, 2002
Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa

BETTENDORF — William H. "Bill" Hale, 70, a resident of Bettendorf, died Saturday, Dec. 28, 2002, at Genesis Medical Center-West Campus, Davenport. A Celebration of Bill's life will be 1 p.m. Thursday at McGinnis, Chambers & Sass Funeral Home, Bettendorf. Burial will be in Pine Hill Cemetery. Visitation is 3-7 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Milan No-Kill Animal Shelter or Catfish Jazz Society Scholarship Fund.

Bill was born March 13, 1932, in Ellsworth, Iowa, the son of Truman and Cora (Thompson) Hale. He was a graduate of Ellsworth High School and attended the University of Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls, Iowa. He married Mary Eckheart on Nov. 18, 1962, in Elkader, Iowa. She preceded him in death Aug. 4, 1994. He served in the Air Force during the Korean War. During his time in the military, he spent a great deal of his time entertaining the troops with his music.

Bill was a licensed funeral director and embalmer and a graduate of Worsham College of Mortuary Science, Chicago. He retired from McGinnis, Chambers & Sass Funeral Home, Bettendorf. In earlier years, he had served as a funeral director/embalmer at Runge Mortuary, funeral homes at Belmond, Iowa, and Ft. Dodge, Iowa and Weerts Funeral Home, Davenport. He was a lifetime member of the Tri-City Musical Society Local 67-American Federation of Musicians and a member of the Catfish Jazz Society. Many will remember Bill for his gift of music. He was an accomplished musician and played virtually every type of instrument with the exception of bagpipes. For more than 50 years, he played bass in a variety of Quad-City nightclubs, churches, concerts and special events. The "Ad Libs," of which Bill was a longtime member, provided many years of enjoyable music to young and old alike. Bill was an accomplished woodworker and loved to work in his garden. His unique personality and quick sense of humor always will be remembered by those who knew and loved him.

Those left to honor his memory include his daughter, Julie Hale, Bettendorf; his sons and daughter-in-law, Paul and Karen Hale and Bryan Hale, all of Moline; his grandchildren, Jordan Hale, Nathan Hale and Erinn Hale; his sister, Shirley Johnston, Belmond, Iowa; his brothers and sister-in-law, Richard and Carol Hale, Kansas City, Mo., and Robert Hale, Newton, Iowa; his sister-in-law, Wanda Eckheart, Buffalo Center, Iowa; and his very special friend, Sandy Larsen, Bettendorf. In addition to his wife, Bill was preceded in death by his parents.