Calvin R. Winstead

Calvin R. Winstead (89) passed away at his Electric City, Wash., home Friday, June 14, 2013. Cal was born April 30, 1924, in Tioga, Louisiana, the second youngest of Allen and Nora Winstead’s eight children. Calvin remembered sitting on his father’s lap as a youngster, drinking his coffee.  (might be where he got his 2-pot-a-day habit).  His dad would give him one bullet and the gun because they knew if Calvin went hunting they would have dinner. When he was 9 years old, Calvin’s mom died and at 13 his dad passed away. Calvin then lived with his great aunt Nora “Grandma” Harrison in Bossier City, La. until graduation from high school.

Following graduation, he joined the 3C’s, then worked in an Oregon box company and then as a logger in Galeese, Oregon, when Calvin met and married Dorothy Rice who worked at the hotel where he lived.

During World War II, he served in the US Navy in the South Pacific, then to Alaska, where Gunner’s Mate Calvin R. Winstead requested permission to use the ship’s gun to shoot a big bear, “permission denied”. By war’s end, Calvin was in Manila, Philippines.

After the war, Calvin’s family lived in Seattle for 8 years and Monroe, Wash., for 22 years. Following retirement as a foreman from the Seattle waterfront, Calvin moved to Electric City 25 years ago with Mary - his second wife, who died in 2000 following a long illness. “Daddy was the most loving and dedicated husband I have ever known.  He cared for her every need and never went any place that she couldn’t go with him.”

A quiet and gentle man, Calvin dedicated his life to his families, was an avid deer hunter and fisherman, his final fishing trip being the day before his passing.  His son Cal and he were faithful fishing buddies to the end.

His legacy also lives on through his two children: Calvin E. “Cal” Winstead and Pat Butler; four step-children whom he treated as his own: Gail, Laura, Eddy and Glen; grandchildren including: Nicole Collie and Michelle Collie who were able to attend the memorial service and many great-grandchildren.

Services for Calvin were held Thursday, June 20, 2013, at 1 p.m., at the Strate Funeral Home Chapel in Grand Coulee with his burial next to his beloved Mary at Spring Canyon Cemetery.

His family requests any donations be made to the Care and Share Food Bank, Grand Coulee, WA 99133.

Friends may sign Calvin’s online register book at HYPERLINK “http://www.stratefuneralhome.com” http://www.stratefuneralhome.com, Strate Funeral Chapel is honored to be serving Calvin’s family.