This is dad's obituary and kinda his life story. I have another life story somewhere if I can find it. I will post it later.
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John Willie Sloan was born March 1, 1918 to Howard and Mary (Lawson) Sloan in Chelsea, Oklahoma. A few years later he moved with his mother and two older brothers back to Missouri where he lived and was raised “up Caney”.
Willie attended 8 years of school at ‘Possum Trot and sat in on classes and finished two years of high school while working as janitor at Bradleyville School.
Willie started working at a young age for Hershel Gott for 60 cents a day and while still a teenager he went to work at a CCC camp.
After that experience he went out west and traveled around and worked at various jobs and to pick fruit. It was while he was working out west that he met a girl from back home and fell in love and married Juanita Richardson. They were happily married for nearly 50 years, missing that milestone by only a couple of months due to the death of Juanita from cancer.
Willie joined the Army for 2 years and was stationed for a while in the Philippines where he served as an M.P.
When Willie came home from the Army to Bradleyville, he worked a few years at Bradleyville School as janitor.
Willie and his family moved to Colorado for a while where he worked in the timber. They then moved to Kansas City where he worked as a hod carrier.
The family finally moved home to Bradleyville to stay and Willie worked first for Lewis Albright in his garage as a mechanic and then owned and operated his own garage in Bradleyville for several years.
During these years he bought a boat and he and his family spent many wonderful days at the lake, fishing, swimming and water skiing with lots of family and friends.
When the General Electric Company built a factory in Springfield he decided to go to work there and worked several years at G.E.
Willie retired from G.E. and decided to do lots more hunting and fishing, which he loved, but a few weeks later he decided retirement wasn’t for him and started repairing lawn mowers for people, and also started a well pump service. He worked at that a few more years and then finally did retire.
After the death of Juanita in 1989, Willie was alone and lonely, so he got in touch with a widowed lady he knew and they started dating, and soon fell in love and decided to marry.
In June of 1990 he married Donna (Hicks) Stevens, and they celebrated 22 happy years of marriage this year on June 4, 2012. They spent many years traveling, fishing and just enjoying each other’s company.
He was always busy, remodeling every house his family lived in, and raising a big garden every year. He was always working on something, a car, lawn mower, chain saw or whatever needed fixed, not only for himself but for any family or friend that needed help. If he wasn’t working on something you could expect he would be reading a western novel or playing cards with family and friends.
Willie is preceded in death by his parents, his first wife and mother of his children, Juanita, his son and daughter-in-law, Steven Russell and his wife, Alice, and 1 day old infant son, John William, and two brothers, Russell and Lee. Also preceding him is 2 grandsons-in-law, John Mills and Bryon Porter.
Willie is survived by his wife, Donna Sloan; two daughters, Virginia Sloan of Kissee Mills, MO and Karen Case and husband Bob of Bradleyville, MO; a step-daughter, Jeannie Cummings and husband Raymond of Marshfield, MO; 10 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren, and 12 great-great grandchildren, many nieces and nephews.
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