Donald Bailey Whitmore of Conroe, Texas died just after noon, April 15, 2023, of cardiac arrest following a hemorrhagic stroke. His final moments were standing up straight and walking strong with his wife at his side. He wanted to go home. Don was born on August 27, 1937 to Lester and Alice Whitmore in Clearfield, Iowa. He attended Clearfield Public School, where he played football, baseball, basketball, and band.
After graduating high school in 1956, Don attended Northwest Missouri State University and worked in construction.
In 1958 he moved to Entiat, Washington and worked for the U.S. Forest Service. His uncle Phil and Aunt Doris lived in nearby Ephrata.
In 1962 he married Sandra Kay Hanson and they settled in Entiat. Later that year they had David Brent Whitmore.
While in Entiat Don worked for the U.S. Forest Service while Sandy worked in the apple orchards office.
In 1968 they had Jeffrey Scott Whitmore in Wenatchee, and the the family moved to Bedford then Ames, Iowa where Don attended Iowa State University. Sandy watched the boys during the day while Don attended classes, and at night Sandy worked as a keypunch operator while Don watched the boys.
In 1972 Don received a degree in Forestry. The family moved to Conroe, Texas, where Don got a job at Louisiana Pacific in land management.
The family moved for a year in 1974 to Crockett, Texas.
In 1976, the family moved back to Conroe. Sandy worked in admitting at Doctor's Hospital, and then real estate.
Their first son Brent went to Texas A&M and works at AT&T in Dallas. Their second son Jeff went to University of Texas in Austin and had a long career in advertising in New York, and in web development.
Don was active in the Freemasons and the Kiwanis Club, and a lifelong member of the Methodist Church. Don enjoyed skiing, golf, racquetball, deer hunting, fishing, and in later life, reading Western books, walking, gardening, and bird feeding.
Family: Don's parents were Lester and Alice Bruner. His grandparents were June Whitmore and Lillian Bailey, and Daniel Bruner and Mary Blanche Knox.
Don had an older brother, Max, younger brother Gary, and sister Vicki.
Don is survived by his wife, Sandy Whitmore, sons Brent and Jeff, daughter-in-law Teresa, grandsons Trevor and Austin, all of Texas, brother Max and sister-in-law Kathy of Plattsmouth, Nebraska, and sister-in law Peg of Entiat, Washington.
Don's remains are to be cremated per his request with no local services; a meeting with extended friends and family will be held at a later date in Clearfield, Iowa.
His favorite quote that he repeated often was a passage from William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”:
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head; and this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”
