WEST COLUMBIA – Funeral services for Ebert M. Kleinlercher, 86, will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 at All Saints Episcopal Church. Interment will be in Southland Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Monday, October 15, 2018 at Caughman-Harman Funeral Home, West Columbia Chapel. Pallbearers are Jason Priester, Lesa Maly, Sean Maly, Chevis Bailey, Mark Gillian and J. C. Ciaramella. Honorary Pallbearers are A. G. Dantzler, Hammond Pound, Vince Rhodes, Maxey Roberts and John Shealy. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to All Saints Episcopal Church, 1001 12th St., Cayce, SC 29033.
Mr. Kleinlercher was born in 1932 in Balzano, Italy, to Hilda Kleinlercher Garamai. On April 12, 1952 he came to this country at the Port of New York, NY, on the General Ballou, as a displaced person after WWII. Ebert could speak no English when he arrived in this country. He attended schools in Italy and Austria. His family of six was sponsored by a Lutheran church out of Lebanon, PA. He was drafted into the US Army in 1953 and served two years active duty in the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, MD. In 1955, using his VA benefits, he attended and graduated from HVAC School in York, PA. While in HVAC School, his teacher could not pronounce his last name and gave him the nickname “Dutch”, which has stuck with him throughout the years. He moved to Columbia, SC, and married Dorothy Mae Lane of Horry County and had one daughter, Melissa Leigh.
He served 25 ½ years in the US Army Reserves at Fort Jackson, SC, and was eventually honorably discharged. He achieved the rank of E-7, was a Drill and Mess Sergeant. He was employed for W. R. Hartin Heating & Air, Inc. until 1974, at which time he started Dutch Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. It was also in 1974 that he met and married his wife of 44 years, Iris Bailey. She had one daughter, Kelly.
Dutch was a member of several HVAC organizations, a Lexington Medical Center Foundation donor member and a longtime member of the Cayce-West Columbia Optimist Club.
He is survived by his wife, Iris; daughters, Missy Kleinlercher of Charlotte, NC, Kelly Ciaramella of Indian Land, SC, and her three children, Bailey, Caitlin and J.C., along with several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his mother; brothers, Raymond and Ernst Maly and sister, Helga Ludwig.
