George C. Berry

George Carroll Berry, a lifelong Kansas City resident, passed away on June 12, 2016. He was a wonderful husband, dad, grandad, great grandad and friend. George was a friend to all he met and he never knew a stranger. George was born November 9, 1922 in Des Moines, Iowa, the son of Carroll W. Berry and Mildred Marr Berry. He grew up in Kansas City and attended Hale Cook Grade School and was always proud of being a Waldo boy. He graduated from Southwest High School in 1939, attended Kansas City Junior College and then the University of Missouri in Columbia where he graduated in 1946. At Mizzou, he was a proud member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

In World War II and later he served in various assignments in the Army and in the Missouri National Guard. He was a graduate of the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill and also the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. He retired from the National Guard in 1964 as a Lieutenant Colonel after over 20 years of military service.

Meanwhile a blind date in April of 1950 with Dee Oelke, an Iowa girl living in Kansas City, soon led to marriage in October 1950. They were married for over 65 years and have five children, eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

George was Judge of the Probate Division of the Circuit Court of Jackson County, MO for 23 years until his retirement on December 31, 1987. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Kansas City in 1949. Following his admission to the Bar in 1948, he was in private practice in Kansas City until his 1964 judicial appointment by Governor Dalton. He was Special Assistant Attorney General of Missouri from 1949 until 1961; and was Probate Court Commissioner during 1963 and 1964.

In 1964, Judge Berry received the Kansas City Bar Association Annual Achievement Award for his efforts in establishing the Legal Aid Society of Kansas City, now known as Legal Aid of Western Missouri, the first such organization to provide a comprehensive array of legal services to the indigent of the area. He served as the first president of the group.

He was chairman of Missouri Bar Probate and Trusts Committee in 1971-1972, and was president of the Missouri Association of Probate Judges in 1973. In 1977 he was chairman of a state wide multi-discipline committee which drafted a new mental health commitment law for Missouri. From 1978 to 1982, he served on a state wide Circuit Court Budget Committee which established a personnel system for some 1400 newly state-paid court clerks.

In 1971, he began his involvement with the National College of Probate Judges helping expand that organization from a regional organization to one that is truly national in scope and activity. He was secretary-treasurer of NCPJ from 1971 to 1977 and president from 1977 to 1979. He was an executive committee member until 1981.

He was also a frequent lecturer and discussion leader on probate, guardianship and mental health matters locally and around the country for over 20 years. His legal writings have appeared in the Journal of the Missouri Bar, Missouri Bar CLE materials and the Probate Law Journal. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Center for the State Courts from 1981 to 1984, and an Advisory Board member for the Center’s Institute on Mental Disability and the Law from 1984-1989.

He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Missouri at Kansas City Law School Foundation and was a Fellow of the Foundation. He served as president of the UMKC Law School Alumni. In 1979, he received an Alumni Achievement Award from UMKC.

A lifelong Episcopalian, George was a founding member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Kansas City. There he served as a vestryman and senior warden, lay reader, chalice bearer and choir member. His church and his Christianity were very important in his life. George was also a lifelong Democrat because of a long line of family tradition and personal belief in the party principles. He instilled in all he met a sense of fairness and he had an uncanny ability to see all sides of a situation and come up with a compromise solution.

George loved music, especially jazz and swing, the music he grew up with. He was always the first to lead the singing around the piano. His wonderful tenor voice lent beauty to any gathering. He loved reading mystery novels and exploring maps and atlases. He loved to travel and plan trips to exotic places. He and Dee explored most of Europe, New Zealand and Australia. And with his family he loved car trips around the United States. Bridge was a lifelong passion. In fact, his first real date with Dee was playing duplicate bridge.

His deepest love was for acting. He portrayed Harry Truman in a documentary drama, “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry” at the Music Hall in 1970, and Mayor Shinn in “The Music Man” in 1972. He had the lead in various church productions, including an original musical comedy. And he played featured roles in every Kansas City Bar Association show. He preferred parts with an emphasis on comedy. He was the ultimate “ham”.

George is survived by his wife of 65 years, Dee Berry and his five children: George “Cal” Berry and his wife Nancy, Johanna “Jan” Berry Russell, Christopher Berry and his wife Celia, James Berry, and Andrew Berry and his wife Marcia. He is also survived by his eight grandchildren: Meghan Berry, Gretchen Range, Jeff Berry, Taylor Russell, Molly Loewen, Mady Berry, Jackson Berry and Sam Berry. His four great-grandchildren are Charlie Loewen, Hanna Loewen, Brixton Russell and Alice Range

Visitation will be Friday, June 17th from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at Mount Moriah, Newcomer & Freeman Funeral Home located at 10507 Holmes Road, Kansas City, MO 64131. The funeral service will be held at St Peter and All Saints Episcopal Church on Saturday, June 18th, at 1:00pm. The church is located at 100 East Red Bridge Road, Kansas City, MO 64114.

The family would like to thank the kind and loving staff of St. Luke’s Hospice Care for all they did for George and his family over this past week. They are truly angels! In lieu of flowers, George’s family suggests donations to St Peter and All Saints Episcopal Church (100 East Red Bridge Road, Kansas City, MO 64114), Saint Luke’s Hospice Care (3516 Summit, Kansas City, MO 64111) or Harvesters (3801 Topping Ave, Kansas City, MO 64129).

Arrangements under the direction of Mt Moriah, Newcomer & Freeman Funeral Home, Kansas City, MO.