WALTER HILTERBRAND
LYTTON - Wesley Hilterbrand, 88, died Sunday, January 4, 2009 at Shady Oaks Care Center in Lake City.
Funeral service will be 2 p.m. Friday at the Lampe Funeral Home in Lake City with visitation one hour prior to the service. Burial will be in Cottonwood Cemetery in Lake City.
Wesley Harold Hilterbrand was born April 16, 1920, in Houston, Missouri, to Ola and Otto Hilterbrand. At the age of two years, Wesley, along with his parents and brother Carl and sister Paulene, moved to Calhoun Co. Iowa, where Wes has lived the remainder of his life. The Hilterbrand family lived northeast of Lytton, where to Wes's family was added a little sister, Shirley Hilterbrand. The family resided on this farm throughout all of Wes's school years from childhood to young adult.
At age five, Wesley entered the first grade at the Lytton Consolidated School. Here he completed all twelve grades, graduating with the class of 1937. Following graduation, Wesley attended Iowa State University in Ames before returning home to work assisting his father as a farmhand.
On September 5, 1942, Wesley was united in marriage to his sweetheart, Fay Eileen Shanklin, at the Woodlawn Christian Church in Lake City, Iowa. They enjoyed over 66 years of marriage before Fay's recent passing away on Dec. 24, 2008.
On October 14, 1942, Wesley Harold Hilterbrand entered the United States Army Air Force, where he served at Laughlin Air Field in Del Rio, Texas, and later Mac Dill Field in Tampa, Florida. In June of 1945, Wes received orders to go overseas to Guam. On February 14, 1946, Wes was honorably discharged from the Army Air Force and returned home on Valentine's Day to his wife and new baby daughter.
That Spring of 1946 Wes began farming the Shanklin farm in Elm Grove Township, where he worked and lived the remainder of his farming career, married to Fay and raising their daughter, Carol Jo.
Wes was a strong, quiet man who loved his family and enjoyed life long friendships with a special few who shared his hobbies and special interests. Wes was a devoted husband, a caring father, and a loving grandfather and great-grandfather. He will be missed greatly.
