Donald Bailey Whitmore

Donald Bailey Whitmore of Conroe, Texas died just after noon, April 15, 2023, of cardiac arrest following a hemorrhagic stroke. His final moments were standing up straight and walking strong with his wife at his side. He wanted to go home.
Don was born on August 27, 1937 in Clearfield, Iowa. He attended Clearfield Public School, where he played football, baseball, basketball, and band. After graduating high school in 1956, Don attended Northwest Missouri State University and worked in construction. In 1958 he moved to Entiat, Washington and worked for the U.S. Forest Service. His uncle Phil and Aunt Doris lived in nearby Ephrata.
In 1962 he married Sandra Kay Hanson and they settled in Entiat. Later that year David Brent was born. While in Entiat Don worked for the U.S. Forest Service while Sandy worked in the apple orchards office. In 1968 Jeffrey Scott Whitmore was born in Wenatchee, and the family moved to Bedford then Ames, Iowa where Don attended Iowa State University. Sandy watched the boys during the day while Don attended classes, and at night Sandy worked as a mainframe keypunch operator while Don watched the boys. In 1972 Don earned a B.S. degree in Forestry.
The family moved to Conroe, Texas, where Don got a job at Louisiana Pacific in land management. The family moved for a year in 1974 to Crockett, Texas. In 1976, the family moved back to Conroe. Sandy worked as an administrator at Doctor’s Hospital, and then as a realtor. Their first son Brent went to Texas A&M and works at AT&T in Dallas. Their second son Jeff went to University of Texas in Austin and had a long career in advertising in New York. Don was active in the Masons, Kiwanis Club, and the Methodist Church. Don enjoyed skiing, golf, racquetball, deer hunting, boating, fishing, and in later life, reading Western books, walking, gardening, and birdfeeding.
Don’s parents were Lester Whitmore and Alice Bruner. His grandparents were June Whitmore and Lillian Bailey, and Daniel Bruner and Mary Blanche Knox. Don had an older brother, Max, younger brother Gary, and sister Vicki. Don is survived by his wife of 61 years, Sandy, sons Brent and Jeff, daughter-in-law Teresa, grandsons Trevor and Austin, all of Texas, brother Max and sister-in-law Kathy of Plattsmouth, Nebraska, and sister-in law Peg of Entiat, Washington. Don’s brother in law was Dr. Rand Hanson and wife Carol, sister-in-law Marla Bickel and husband Dale, sister-in-law Kay Thomson and husband Dr. John U., and many nieces, nephews, relatives, and friends.
Don was preceded in death by his brother Gary and sister Vicki.
His favorite quote that he repeated often was a passage from William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”:
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head; and this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”
A memorial service will be at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, June 29 at Clearfield Methodist Church in Clearfield with burial to follow in the Clearfield Cemetery
A luncheon and time of sharing will follow the burial back at Clearfield Methodist Church.
Memorials may be directed to Clearfield Methodist Church.
Services conducted by Armstrong Funeral Homes of Mount Ayr, IA.