WILLARD McCARNEY

1927-1997

Willard McCarney was born June 22,1927.He had 8 brothers and sisters, Opal, Leonard, James, Betty, Carol, Robert, Norman and one more sibling who, died as a baby. He walked to school in Engadine. The president at the time was F.D. Roosevelt. As a young person he enjoyed his mom’s potato pancakes and family get- togethers. On Halloween he would push over outhouses, but he had to put them back up. It cost Willard five cents for a candy bar and fifty cents to go to the moves. He played softball as a kid and as he got older. Willard’s first paying job was pulling logs out of the woods with a horse. Willard was good at working on C.B. radios. The Detroit Tigers was his favorite baseball team. He read hunting and science magazines every month. His favorite breakfast was eggs and toast. He collected guns; his favorite stores were the gun shops. The worse disaster he ever witnessed was the tornado in Flint.

In 1970 he got married to Ruth. They were married for 27 years and had one daughter, Laura, one son, William, and six grand children. Although Willard traveled to Germany and Korea in the service, and also later to Las Vegas, he had hoped to travel in retirement, but he started to get sick and died in 1997.

Mike Williams

Fifth Grade

Engadine Elementary School

Thanks to Willard’s wife, Ruth McCarney, for sharing information about her husband, and making this biography possible.