Charles Wayne Howard was born in Goree, Texas on August 30, 1926 to Lillie Mae and Modrell Howard, graduated high school in Seymour, Texas and enrolled at Texas Tech University in 1943. He was called into the army in 1945 where he served in the Philippines until 1947. During this period he was awarded the Purple Heart but very rarely mentioned it because he always felt there were others who deserved it more than he did. When he returned home, his family had moved to Wichita Falls, Texas so he enrolled at Hardin Jr. College there. Wayne started attending a youth group at First Baptist Church where he met his future wife, Susie Lee Still. He returned to Texas Tech in 1948 and graduated in 1949 with a degree in business administration majoring in accounting. One week later he and Sue were married in Wichita Falls.
Wayne started to work for General Telephone Company of the Southwest in Lubbock, Texas. In December of 1949 he was recalled into the army during the Korean conflict. First ordered to the finance school in St. Louis, Missouri and from there we moved to Fort Lewis, Washington, where he was honorably discharged in 1952. Wayne returned to work at GTE in Dallas, Texas where his first child, a son, David was born. In 1953, the main office of GTE moved to San Angelo, Texas where we lived until 1971. During that time our second child, a daughter, Debra was born.
In 1971 Wayne was transferred to GTE of the Midwest in Grinnell, Iowa as Vice President and Controller. After having a severe heart attack, we were moved to Tampa, where he was with the service corp of the company. Because of his serious health problems, he took early retirement in 1985 and we continued living in Tampa where we would be celebrating our 69th wedding anniversary on June 3, 2018.
Wayne is survived by his wife, Sue; daughter, Debra; son, David and wife Melanie who gave us two beautiful grand-daughters, Jessica and Sarah.
We would like to thank Visiting Angels for sending "Patsy" to help care for Wayne the last seven years. She became like one of our family and couldn't have been a better fir for our home.
After 91 years Wayne died peacefully early Sunday morning on March 11, 2018. This wonderful, precious husband, loving father, and grandfather will be missed more than we can imagine. We have so many great memories. Thank you God for all these years together.
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