Wayne Thomas MESSERLY

MESSERLY, STALEY, ANDERSON, JOHNSTON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 8/25/2013 at 14:57:48

December 28, 1924 ----- July 29, 2008

STRATFORD, IA - Wayne Thomas Messerly, 83, of Stratford, went home to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Tuesday, July 29, 2008. Funeral services will be held 10 a.m. Saturday, August 2, 2008 at the First Baptist Church, 1400 Highway 175 East in Stratford, Iowa, with interment to follow the funeral at South Marion Cemetery, southeast of Stratford. A time of fellowship and luncheon will be at the Countryside Bible Chapel of rural Stratford, following the graveside service. Visitation will be held Friday, August 1, 2008 at the Walter-Schroeder Funeral Home, at Fifth & Story Streets in Boone from 4 to 8 p.m., with the family present from 6 to 8 p.m. Visitation will continue Saturday morning at the First Baptist Church, 1400 Highway 175 East in Stratford from 8:30 a.m. to the time of service at 10 a.m.

Wayne was born at home in the family farmhouse in Colfax township of Webster County, Iowa, on December 28, 1924. His parents, both deceased, were Mr. and Mrs. Roy Messerly of Duncombe. Wayne graduated from Fort Dodge High School and after serving in World War II went to college on the G.I. Bill. In June of 1946 he married Carol Joyce Staley of Perry. Upon graduation from Drake University, Wayne was hired as a reporter for the Fort Dodge Messenger in the fall of 1947 at $32 a week. This was followed by many years of freelance writing with an estimated 3,000 published articles and newspaper features for leading publications such as Successful Farming and Farm Journal.

Following employment as the Managing Editor of the Boone News Republican, in the summer of 1972 Wayne began working as an information specialist for L.B. Liddy and continued under Robert E. Lounsberry and Dale M. Cochran until his retirement on April 28, 1988. In 1983 Wayne was elected national president of the Communications Officers of the State Departments of Agriculture. Highlights of those years include helping promote and photograph the first delegation from Red China hosted by Governor Robert D. Ray and Secretary Lounsberry in 1978, arranging the first Iowa Press Conference for John Block, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in 1981, and photographing and personally shaking hands with each of the U.S. Presidents since Harry S. Truman.

Wayne was preceded in death by his wife Carol (Staley) Messerly; and his daughter Rene Anderson. He is survived and lovingly remembered by a brother, Dale (Grace) Messerly of Fort Dodge and his children, Rebecca (Peter) Johnston and Wayne Thomas II (Laila) Messerly of Des Moines, Dr. Randall Messerly (Kelli) of Manchester, and David Wayne Messerly of Stratford; 14 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; as well as Jim Agnew and many other brothers and sisters in the Lord at Countryside Bible Chapel. Arrangements being handled by Walter-Schroeder Funeral Home at Fifth & Story Streets in Boone.

August 1, 2008
Fort Dodge Messenger -- Iowa