William W. Whitman

October 21, 1922 – January 19, 1997

William W. Whitman, 74, of 1100 Milroy Court, Winchester, Va., formerly of Potsdam, Pierrepont, Raymondville and Gouverneur, died Jan. 19 at Hillcrest Manor Nursing Home, Winchester, where he had been a resident since 1992.

Mr. Whitman graduated from the Army Air Force bombardier school at San Angelo, Texas, and was commissioned a second lieutenant. He was a bombardier aboard B-17 Flying Fortress with the 8th Army Air Force during World War II, flying 21 missions. On Feb. 10, 1944, while flying his 22nd mission, he became missing in action in Germany and the family learned that March that his plane had been crippled by enemy fire, that all crew members bailed out and he had been taken prisoner. He was liberated in May 1945.

He was employed with Potsdam Feed & Coal Co. and New York Telephone Co. and retired as a communications technician at Fort Meade, Md.

Born Oct. 21, 1922, in Pierrepont, a son of Darwin H. and Maude Dowe Whitman, he was a 1939 graduate of Potsdam High School and attended Arizona Western College. He married Mary Elizabeth Thompson on Aug. 28, 1945, at the First Presbyterian Church. He married Stelleda Hart on Oct. 18, 1970, in Yuma, Ariz.

He was a member of Braddock Street United Methodist Church, Winchester.

Surviving besides his wife are three daughters, Mrs. Sonny (Donna) Dufresne, Proctor, Vt., Mrs. Adrian (Michell) Hinton, Hurricane, Utah, and Jerri Joan Smith, Cottonwood, Ariz.; three stepdaughters, Kathryn Lee Garber, Sarasota, Fla., Joyce Ann Garber Ganse, Arlington, Va., and Doris Marie Garber Taylor, High View, W.Va.; seven sisters, Mary Stover, Tulsa, Okla., Mrs. John (Corliss) Mittelstaedt, Potsdam, Sharon Altman, Nashville, Tenn., Mrs. Vernon (Bonnie) Gonyeau, Gouverneur, Mrs. Edward (Nancy) Whitcomb, Lisbon, Mrs. Robert (Patricia) Johnson, Ogdensburg, and Mrs. John (Rosemarie) Bartholomew, Massena; ve brothers, Merrill G., Yuma, Ariz., Malcolm "Duane," Colton, Ronald J. and Craig M., both of Canton, and Noel T., Ogdensburg; 23 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and several nephews and nieces.

A brother, Parker B., died in May 1958.

The funeral was at Omps Funeral Home, Winchester, with the Revs. Charles Harless and Foster Couchman ofciating. Burial was in Shenandoah Memorial Park Mausoleum, Winchester.

Watertown Daily Times (NY) - Tuesday, January 28, 1997