Garry Whittaker Death, Obituary – Garry Allen Whittaker, a citizen of Riverton, passed away on December 18, 2022, at the age of 78 at the Memorial Medical Center. On Wednesday, December 21, 2022, visitation will take place at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Hartsburg beginning at 10 AM and running until 11 AM. The service will commence at 11 AM.
Immediately after that, at eleven in the morning, there will be funeral services, and Pastor Stephen Goodwin will preside over the event. The burial at the Hartsburg Union Cemetery will be presided over by the Lincoln American Legion post 263, and it will be immediately followed by the military services. During this difficult time, the Holland Barry & Bennett Funeral Home is providing help to the family.
Lincoln, Illinois was the location where Garry Whittaker’s birth took place on June 17, 1944. He was the son of Alfred and Mildred (Wiebers) Whittaker. His father is named Alfred, and his mother’s name is Mildred. The year 1962 was the year that he graduated from Hartsburg Emden High School with his diploma. During the years 1967 to 1969, Garry proudly served his country in the United States Army during the Vietnam War.
His service earned him the Medal of Honor. He served in the Military Police and was responsible for working with canines. He married Antoinette “Toni” Kazakaitis on August 31, 1969. She passed away on February 8, 2005, one day before his passing on February 7, 2005. On November 10, 2018, he finally tied the knot with the woman he had been looking for all along, Gloria (Aper) Hermes.
Garry accepted early retirement from the firm he had worked for for the last 40 years after being promoted to the supervisor position. It’s been eight years since he started doing part-time work at the Holland Barry & Bennett Funeral Home. He had spent his entire life adhering to the Lutheran faith and was very involved in the activities of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Sherman.
He was a gentle and generous man who had a strong belief in God and a big heart. He was also a man of great faith. In addition to being a member of the American Legion Post 263 and the VFW Post 1756, he was also a past member of the Lincoln Elks Lodge 914. The camping trip was a lot of fun for him. He looked forward to spending the winters with Gloria in McAllen, Texas, and he cherished the time that they were able to spend together there. During the course of those journeys, they racked up a significant amount of experiences and made a number of new friends.