Walter Edrick Berringer

Beloved father, grandfather and friend, Walter Edrick Berringer, who lived to be ninety-seven years old, passed away on Thursday, October 16, 2014 comfortably in his Fair Oaks home with family present. Walter had survived his wife of sixty-six years, Harriet Naudine Berringer who at almost 85 years old passed on September 5, 2012. Walter and Harriet lived happily in the same house together for most of their married life, and raised six of their own children, two foster children and one adopted child in Fair Oaks, California.

Born March 23, 1917, Walter was of German ancestry, and his father Fredrick Beutlespatcher came to America from Germany by sea. Fredrick was born on a ship within two miles of Ellis Island, a United States citizen. Fredrick later changed his name from Beutlespatcher to Berringer to attain employment and more importantly to avoid being killed as a “scab” worker by the mafia run union. Fredrick married Anna Yeoke from Ohio, who was English, Welsh, and Scottish. They had four children, of which Walter was the second oldest son. When he was only five years old, his father left to look for work in hard times and Walt's mother and the boys had to fend for themselves.

They found temporary housing in a small apartment above a barbershop, which later caught on fire. Firefighters pulled Anna out the front door and she thought her two sons burned up, but was relieved when she saw that another firefighter had pulled the brothers out through a back window. Walter remembered seeing the firefighter that saved his life actually grab the sandwich off his own plate on the way out of the burning house and finished eating it once outside.

Young Walter was no stranger to work and held odd jobs since the third grade picking berries in Livingston, Missouri, selling worms to fishermen, and trapping chipmunks to sell as pets to those boarding trains. He also made money working in a box factory, a cheese factory and a candy factory. The cheese and candy factories paid him strictly in cheese and candy. His other odd jobs included running a camera for a small movie company in California, working for Standard Oil and working the ice-decks to service the Western Pacific Rail Road all before going to school in the morning.

Walter graduated from Portola high school as a Valedictorian and one year received an award for never missing a class or being tardy. However, Walt did admit to sleeping through a couple classes, and when the girls in the class tried to wake him up, his teacher said, “Let him sleep.” Throughout high school, he was inspired to play the B-Flat Bass Horn and drums as a member of the Eagles Marching Band.

When his father Fredrick Berringer died of heart failure at age fifty-two, the oldest son had already married and left home, so Walter at age twenty provided for his mother and sisters, eventually paying off their house and caring for his sisters until they were married. Walter met his future wife Harriet Naudine Chapman, at a dance hall. After taking her back to her home one evening after their date, she went out to another dance and discovered him there with another date, but she was no competition. Walt and Harriet were inseparable partners after that and he married her on December 29, 1946. Walter worked both for the Western Pacific Rail Road as a Foreman Boil maker and for Wemco as a machinist working long hours to support his wife and children. Walter had a long history of helping others, giving beyond his own means, and never turning anyone away. He had helped build houses, fix cars and do many fix it projects all for free not only for family, friends, and neighbors, but also for people he barely knew, that were in need.

When asked what advice he might have for people from all his life experience, Walter expressed concern that people were losing their sense of independence. He said, “They don’t do stuff for themselves, to me work was fun. I would work for nothing." Walter was also mindful of the effects of technology dependence, and concerned that people were losing real connection with other people. He defined his faith in this way, "Christianity is to help others."

Walter is survived by his six children, two foster children, one adopted child, seventeen grandkids, and thirty-seven great grandkids currently. Walter leaves behind a legacy of friendships and family as well as a model for moral living based on practical wisdom that he exemplified in his daily life. "If you do something that hurts others that is not right; help others." His counsel was simply "Do the best you can." Grandpa Walt would tell his grandkids, "I just want to live one day past your grandma.” Walter loved life and people, was completely dedicated to serving others and valued family above all things, but his heart was truly full of love for one special woman. Walter and Harriet are picking up where they began, at that most beautiful dance hall in Heaven, and this time, he never has to let her go.

A Graveside Service will be held on Saturday, October 25th, 2014, at the Fair Oaks Cemetery located at 7780 Olive Ave., Fair Oaks, CA 95628.