FERROLL HEYDON obituary

LOTHAIR Ferroll E. Heydon, 84, died Jan. 11, 2006, of cancer at his home in Dragoon, Ariz.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Trinity Lutheran Church north of Lothair. Ferroll was born Jan. 2, 1922, to Frank and Effie Heydon on the family farm north of Joplin. He graduated from Joplin High School in 1940, left for Seattle and worked for Boeing Aircraft for 3 years. He was soon assembling B-17 bombers and helped build the 5,000th B-17 named the Flying Fortress Airplane, which was signed by all the workers. Ferroll then joined the Army Air Corps and served as a tailgunner in B-17s during World War II. He concluded his tour of duty at Rhein Mein Air Base in Germany and was discharged in 1948. He went to the Chicago Trades Institute on the GI Bill. He worked as a mechanic and farm hand.

On Dec. 18, 1954, he married Dorothy Olson, a rural school teacher at Bears Den Rural School north of Chester. They began farming on the Billy Walker place 22 miles north of Devon. They worked the farm near the Sweetgrass Hills for 24 years. In 1978, they moved to Havre and bought Hinebauch Brake and Alignment, which they operated, along with their sons, for 13 years. In 1992, they retired to Dragoon, Ariz., where Ferroll drove tractor and built stainedglass windows for his church. Ferroll was preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Clyde, Franklin, Cecil, Lloyd and Lyle; and sisters, Haureen Frydenlund, Darma Hadford and Lois Aspevig. Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Dorothy, of Dragoon; Merry Sveum of Galata, Frank Heydon of Vail, Ariz., Gary (Michele) Heydon of Topeka, Kan., and Judy (Farrell) Stensrud of Missoula; sister, Fern Keith of Moorhead, Minn.; five granddaughters; five grandsons; and five great-grandchildren.