Eugene Henry McCalla, 94, passed away peacefully in Andover, Kansas on February 19, 2019.
Born to W.D. and Nola McCalla in Blockton, Iowa on October 22, 1924, he spent his youth farming their land. He married his sweetheart Frances Marler from Grant City, Missouri in 1947. They were blessed with three daughters. Though Eugene was a hard working farmer, he could care tenderly for ailing lambs or livestock and even was very adept at braiding first daughter Loucinda’s long braids. Second daughter Kathleen seemed to get perms and by the time Lou Gene came along, she was getting a pixie haircut. Eugene loved the farm until the day he died, but in 1961, after much deliberation took the family to Mesa, Arizona.
In Arizona he worked at Motorola, since he had previously studied as a technical electrician at DeVry Institute. In 1964 the family relocated to Wichita, Kansas and began work as a union carpenter foreman, building many homes and businesses in the Wichita area. After retirement he volunteered his services at the Wichita Cowtown Historical Museum. There he worked in the carpenter shop as curator of antique tools and implements. He demonstrated and displayed his carpenter skills and especially liked making wooden toys for children and visitors. He enjoyed this work into his eighties.
Eugene was an avid reader of history, did handicrafts and wood working and always gardened. In the later years he devotedly cared for his wife.
In 2017 he and his wife celebrated 70 years of marriage, surrounded by children, grandchildren and great grand daughter.
Always a very dear man, he was well loved by all, and respected by all who cared for him in his later years.
On Valentine’s Day he insisted on giving roses to all the nurses and aides who cared for him in the facility in which he had very recently moved.
He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Frances Marler McCalla, who died in January 2018, his parents and his sister Donna Addington.
He is survived by: his daughters Loucinda McCalla. (Andover, KS); Kathleen McCalla Augustini (Treviso, Italy); Lou Gene McCalla. (Wichita, KS); grandchildren Jeremiah Unruh (Las Vegas, NV); Jennifer Unruh (Austin, TX); Aaron DeHaven (Wichita, KS); Kyle DeHaven (St. Paul, MN); great granddaughter Riley DeHaven (Wichita, KS); sister Joan Streebin (Norman, OK); brother David McCalla (Wichita, KS).
Arrangements are under direction of Prugh-Dunfee Funeral Home in Grant City, Missouri.
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