Joe Emmanuel HANAWALT

HANAWALT, POLK, OBRECHT, MULDER, LENZ, MILLER, CLAUSEN, HAHN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 11/19/2011 at 21:30:02

April 1, 1917 --- November 7, 2011

MESERVEY, IA - Joe Hanawalt, 94, of Meservey, died Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, at Muse Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit in Mason City. Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m., Thursday, Nov. 10, at the First Reformed Church in Meservey with the Rev. Rodney Meester presiding. Interment will be at the Meservey Cemetery with Veteran's Honors by Anton-Juhl Post No. 440 American Legion in Thornton. Visitation will be 4-7 p.m., today, Wednesday, Nov. 9, at Retz Funeral Home, Thornton. Memorials may be directed to the First Reformed Church in Meservey or the Thornton American Legion.

Joe Emmanuel Hanawalt was born April 1, 1917, at Dumont, a son of Emmanuel and Hannah Matilda (Polk) Hanawalt. He was baptized the EUB church in Dumont. Joe attended country school and graduated from Dumont High School in 1937. He became a mechanic and drove a school bus for the Dumont Schools. Joe was in the first group drafted out of Butler County during World War II. He served 42 months without a leave. His assignments included being in the first 36 U.S. soldiers who went into Japan after their surrender. After his discharge, Joe returned to Iowa and was soon united in marriage with Vivian Ruth Obrecht on Oct. 18, 1945. Joe worked as a mechanic at power plants in Charles City and Algona. They later moved to a farm near Thornton where he opened a shop and continued with the mechanic work and driving the school bus for the Meservey Thornton Schools. Joe retired in 1986 and they moved into Meservey. Joe kept active in the First Reformed Church in Meservey; Meservey Area Promoter's Organization and was a life member of the Thornton American Legion Post. Children were very important to Joe as he greeted them on the bus every morning and watched them grow.

Joe is survived by his wife of 66 years, Vivian; son: Kenneth (Julie) Hanawalt, Rockwell; grandson: Justin Hanawalt, Calif.; sister: Nina Mulder, Waverly; brother-in-law: Roger Obrecht, Mason City, and a host of nieces, nephews and other relatives. Preceding him in death are his parents, brothers: Merlin and Nilus and sisters: Edith Lenz, Viola Miller, Erma Clausen, Mabel Hahn and Lila Hanawalt. Retz Funeral Home, Thornton.

Mason City Globe Gazette -- Iowa
November 9, 2011