Dad is at peace, he went to be with Mom on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.
Harold Ernest Behler was born Aug. 13, 1925, on the family farm about two miles west of Ferdinand, to Herman Behler and Kathryn Rose Willenborg Behler.
Harold spent his early years living in and around Ferdinand, Greencreek, Keuterville and Cottonwood on the family farms of his parents, uncles and grandparents. He attended schools, often on horseback, at Greencreek and Ferdinand. In 1940, the family moved to Clarkston, where Harold attended Holy Family Catholic School and later Charles Francis Adams High School.
After his junior year, Harold moved to Portland for a summer job at Commercial Iron Works and worked there until he registered for the World War II Draft on Aug. 14, 1943, the day after his 18th birthday.
He was sent to Camp Maxey, near Paris, in Lamar County, Texas, for infantry training with the 13th Armored Division before going into the war. The 13th Armored Division, known as the Black Cats, was sent to Le Havre, France, in January 1945, and was attached to the XVIII Airborne Corps and moved into Homberg, Germany, to help liberate prisoners of war. Just three weeks before the Germans surrendered, he was part of the tank battle breakthrough at Cologne, Germany.
In April 1945, Harold was shot through his elbow while engaged in battle in Germany, was evacuated to Paris, France, for treatment and later transferred to McCaw General Hospital, a World War II Army Hospital, near Fort Walla Walla, in Washington.
While recuperating in Walla Walla, Harold was invited by a friend and fellow combat wounded veteran, to double date with him and his date, Marge’s friend LaVon, from the Nurse Cadet Corp serving at the hospital. Harold and LaVon went out a couple of times.
After returning to Clarkston, Harold wanted to know if LaVon would like to go out with him again. Of course, she did many times and on Nov. 29, 1947, they were married at Holy Family Catholic Church in Clarkston.
Harold worked at Inland Motor Freight, and LaVon worked at St. Joseph’s Hospital. In addition to working there, in the spring of 1949, they had the opportunity and decided to move to LaVon’s parents’ farm near Winchester, where they made their first home and began farming. It was a real adventure because Harold, then 23, had already been to war and worked as a youth on numerous farms, and LaVon, then 22, had become a nurse after having grown up there on the home farm. On Oct. 18, 1949, in that first year on the farm, their first child, Cheryl Ann, was born. A year and a half later, on Jan. 17, 1951, another daughter, Jerene Marie, was added to the family. It would be almost nine years later before their son Dennis Harold was born on Nov. 8, 1959.
Along with farming the home place, Harold also worked and became the millwright for the Hallack and Howard Lumber Company near Winchester. After the mill closed in 1965, he worked at Lou Bell Motors in Lewiston. By the late 1960s, they were focusing on farming as their life occupation and by 1974, Harold and LaVon had acquired some of the adjoining farmland to enhance the home place and rented more land to expand the farming operations, raising wheat, barley, canola, peas and grass seed. Throughout the farming years, Harold was recognized for his expertise and dedication to the profession and served on several boards for soil conservation, growers associations and cooperatives, notably including terms as president of the Lewiston Grain Growers, Inc. (Primeland) Board of Directors, and on the Spokane Bank of Cooperatives Farm Credit Board.
In the late 1980s, Harold and LaVon “semi” retired from farming and bought a succession of homes in Lewiston, where Harold earned a well-deserved reputation for meticulous landscape maintenance and Christmas decorations. After enjoying the recreational vehicle snowbird lifestyle for several years, they bought a winter home in Sun City Grand in Surprise, Ariz., where Harold and LaVon were regulars on the Granite Falls Golf Course and neighborhood socials. Harold continued to actively golf into his 90s at the Lewiston Golf and Country Club.
In November 2017, Harold and LaVon celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary at the Red Lion Hotel in Lewiston. On Aug. 14, 2021, we all celebrated LaVon’s 95th birthday (and Harold’s 96th on Aug. 13) at the Winchester family farm with their children and spouses and most of their grandchildren, their spouses, and their great-grandchildren and her spouse in attendance for a good old family birthday celebration. They lived on their own in Lewiston until September 2021 when they moved into Royal Plaza Assisted Living facility.
Harold was preceded by in death by his wife, LaVon (of 74 years); son-in-law, Jerry Neil Wallace; brothers Joe, Fred, Herman and Gerald Behler. He is survived by his children Cheryl Wallace, Jerene (Pete) Gertonson and Dennis (Tracy) Behler. He is survived by his grandchildren Keith (Maureen) Wallace, Kathy (Bill) Gehring, Brian (Michelle) Wallace, Nikki (Josh) Cox, Angie Wallace, Joe (Amy) Behler, Beth (Tucker) Harding and Kit (Bethany) Behler. He is survived by his great-grandchildren Sarah and Sam Wallace, Cole (Cassidy) Gehring, Kaleigh (Brandon) Poxleitner and Rylan Gehring, Anna Wallace, Cooper and Abby Cox, Stone and Nile Heinzman, Brodie Behler, and Livi, Virginia and Betsy Behler. He is survived by his great-great-granddaughter Presley LaVon Poxleitner. He is also survived by his sisters Marie Mitchel, of Lewiston, Dona (Jay) McCann, of Lewiston, and Mardell (Arnold) Muth, of Pasco; as well as numerous nieces, nephews and friends.
The family would like to thank nurse Kim from St. Joseph’s Hospice, and nurse Opal and the staff at Royal Plaza, for the excellent care and compassion they gave not only to Harold (and LaVon) but also the rest of the Behler family. His celebration of life will be Tuesday, April 11, 2023, at All Saints Catholic Church, 3330 14th Street, Lewiston. The rosary will be recited at 10:30 a.m. followed by the service at 11 a.m. His burial will be immediately after the service at Lewis-Clark Memorial Gardens. Lunch will be served following the burial at All Saints Catholic Church reception hall.
Donations can be made to All Saints Catholic Church or St Joseph’s Hospice in lieu of flowers.