William Orlo “Bill” Younger died Thursday, April 21 (2016). Memorial service will be at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 26, at Coffman Funeral Home in Harrison, with Carl Garvin officiating. Visitation will directly precede the memorial service. Memorial gifts may be sent to Gideon’s International, P.O. Box 997, Harrison AR 72602-0997.
William Orlo “Bill” Younger died Thursday, April 21 (2016). Memorial service will be at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 26, at Coffman Funeral Home in Harrison, with Carl Garvin officiating. Visitation will directly precede the memorial service. Memorial gifts may be sent to Gideon’s International, P.O. Box 997, Harrison AR 72602-0997.
He was born in Pindall, on Jan. 28, 1925, to Minnie Opal (Walters) Younger and Leland Adelbert Younger.
Mr. Younger graduated from Western Grove schools and enlisted in the Navy in 1943, aspiring to be a Naval Air Cadet. He spent the next two years receiving training in New York, Missouri, Florida and North Carolina, gathering stories that his family and friends enjoyed for a lifetime. World War II was over before he was deployed, but he attended the University of Oklahoma on the GI Bill, graduating in 1949 with a degree in mechanical engineering.
It was in Norman, Oklahoma, that he met Janice May Lambert, from Lexington, Oklahoma. They married on July 15, 1950. They spent the first years of their married life in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he worked for Honeywell, started a family and made lifelong friends.
He moved back to Arkansas in 1960, to work for AP&L. He worked in Little Rock, Harrison and Pine Bluff, retiring in 1983 as the Manager of Transportation. He enjoyed being part of the AP&L retirement community for many years.
Upon retirement for AP&L, Mr. Younger moved to Western Grove and built a log home in the woods where his children and grandchildren enjoyed many happy times.
He became a dealer for Hardy Wood Heaters and enjoyed meeting and making new friends in Searcy County.
Mr. Younger enjoyed people, was a genealogist of his family history and helped with the Searcy County Ancestor Fair for years. He loved to meet someone, learn their last name, make a connection to a family in Searcy County, and trade their newly discovered common histories. When a grandson brought home a special girl from North Carolina, Mr. Younger was delighted to pull out his granddad’s 1898 Everton Arkansas Mail Route list, point out her last name right there, and tease his grandson about going all the way to North Carolina to marry a cousin!
Mr. Younger served his community on the SPG Water Board. He was a loyal Republican who believed that the best way to fight poverty was to work. He cut trees, chopped wood and stoked his wood heater through his 89th year and was so proud and grateful that his children and grandchildren were gainfully employed. He was a faithful member of the Valley Springs Baptist Church and practiced his faith by his service as a Gideon.
His children and grandchildren have many happy memories of stories told and re-told (thanks in no small measure to Janice’s ability to fill in names, dates and places at the proper time!). His prayers and stories, laughter and grateful heart will be sorely missed.
In addition to Janice, his wife of 65 years, Mr. Younger is survived by three younger sisters, Alma Lea Snow, of Conway, Vivian Jean Stanford, of Humble, Texas, and Barbara June Boyd, of Fayetteville; two daughters, Jill Younger Morgan (Norman) of Western Grove, and Ann Younger Pierce (Ruston) of Little Rock; a son, Kirt (Sandy) Younger, of Western Grove; nine grandchildren, Jon-David and Jared Cariker, Derek, Andrew and Stuart Pierce, Jenna, Heather, Kyle and Kody Younger; and 15 great-grandchildren with two more coming.
