Lewis Richard Vandeventer

Lewis Richard Vandeventer, of Sibley (Buckner), Missouri, born in Carroll County, Missouri, passed away at the age of 90 on Tuesday evening, April 4, 2023, at the Cameron Veterans Home, Cameron, Missouri, where he lived since December 2021. Lewis was an Army veteran of the Korean War with 8 years of service earning the Korean Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.

Lewis was preceded in death by his wife Cleda Mildred Ann Kalipinski, his father Lewis Thomas Vandeventer, his mother Evelyn Pattie, his brother Wilford Ray Vandeventer, his nephew Terry Joe Vandeventer of DeWitt, Missouri, and his niece Gayle (Tietjens) Welchon of Bosworth, Missouri.

He is survived by his two sisters, Laveda J. Wright of Chillicothe, Missouri (Hale MO), and Bertie A. Sewell (Richard) of Houstonia, Missouri. Four children including Pamela S. Douglas of Clive, Iowa (Bob); Christine Vandeventer of Lawson, Missouri (Carl Kohler); Kenneth R. Vandeventer of Buckner, Missouri; and Lewis L. Vandeventer of Bates City, Missouri (Mary). Five grandchildren including Christopher M. Douglas of Fort Collins, Colorado; Margaret E. Douglas of Des Moines, Iowa; Marilyn Doyle Burns (Trey) of Rolla, Missouri; Katherine Doyle Lyons (Justin) of Kansas City, Missouri; and Seth C. Kohler of Liberty, Missouri. Three great grandchildren including Shelby Fellers of Shawnee, Kansas, and Willow R. and Jade A. Burns of Rolla, Missouri; and ten nieces and nephews. For a time, after Cleda’s passing, Lewis was married to Sharron Tennison who resides in Buckner, Missouri.

Visitation will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 11, 2023, at the Speaks Buckner Chapel, 300 Adams Street, Buckner, Missouri, 64016.

A private family funeral will be conducted at the Higginsville Veterans Cemetery Committal Shelter. Following the service, cemetery personnel will escort Lewis to his plot where he is to be interred next to his wife, Cleda.

While Lewis was working from a riverboat for Massman Construction Co. on a Missouri River relocation project in St. Joseph, Missouri, after the 1951 flood, he was drafted into the Korean War, where he earned the rank of Corporal while in the Engineering Division. Upon his return to stateside, he met and married Cleda Kalipinski, they settled in the Los Angeles, California, area and began their family with daughter Pamela Sue. They moved to Carroll County, Missouri, following what work he could find at the time, where Christine and Kenneth Ray were born, then to Buckner, Missouri, before Lewis Lee “Louie” was born. Lewis set up a sustainable farm for his family on the acreage he purchased in rural Jackson County between Buckner and Sibley supporting chickens, pigs, beef cows, milk cows, ponies, an alfalfa field, and a very large vegetable garden. This was supplemented with hunting and fishing. In the 1970’s, Lewis became an entrepreneur starting his own excavation business after years of working in the trade as a member of Operating Engineers Local 101.

Lewis was also a survivor who returned from the Korean War to carry on despite the explosion, bullet riddled guard shack, mutilations, meningitis, death of friends, suicides, and alcoholism. Once back in the states, he survived the gunshot to the back, motorcycle accident, and the ride down the side of a mountain on top of a dozer propelled by a land slide.

Lewis was all about guns, knives, and pecan pie. Arrowheads, flower beds, and fish fries. Blue grass music, country fairs, little kids, and ice cream. Homemade. He was about big gardens, bigger scrap loads, and taller tales. He named his vehicles and worked hard. The harder the work the better. Any weather. Rain, snow, scorching heat, up early, work all day, to bed early—repeat. No vacations. No sick days. Until the kids are raised. Yet there were weekends of camping, canoeing, Sunday family dinners, and Sunday drives. Always had his camera with him documenting adventures, landscapes, animals, and folks he knew. He loved to instigate laughter and had many good friends, too.