Buster Davenport

BUSTER DAVENPORT

Anamosa

Buster (NMI) Davenport, 98, died Thursday, July 10, 2014, at the Anamosa Care Center from complications of old age and boredom. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 18, at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Anamosa. Immediately after the funeral service, he will be buried in Holy Cross Cemetery. At this time, his lifeless body will be accorded graveside full military honors. Friends may call from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Goettsch Funeral Home, Anamosa.

In lieu of flowers, a

memorial fund has been

established.

Thoughts, memories and condolences may be left at www.goettschonline.com

Buster was born July 26, 1915, to Laura Ellen Sisk and William Greeley Davenport, in Mechanicsville, Iowa. At the age of 15, he graduated salutatorian and president of the Anamosa High School class of 1931. He attended Cornell College for one year. Although without previous wrestling experience, at the age of 16 he was the college 125-pound wrestling champion.

He was a bundle boy at the Reliance Shirt Factory when he and Vierlyn McGreevy were married by Father Behan in the St. Patrick Church Rectory. In 1937, he became a laborer with the Jones County maintenance crew of the Iowa Highway Commission. He was named the foreman of the crew in 1941.

He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He was appointed postmaster of Anamosa in 1953 and promoted to the St. Louis Regional Office of the Post Office Department in 1969. There he became special assistant to the regional director. When the Post Office Department was reorganized as the United States Postal Service, he was transferred to Chicago as director of communications and public affairs. He retired in 1975, and Vierlyn and he moved back to Anamosa.

He was a former member and past president of the Anamosa Lions Club and Anamosa PTA. He was a 69-year-member and past commander of Anamosa's Arthur McCullough Post No. 13 of the American Legion. He was a member of the National Association of Postmasters and held these offices in that organization: president of the Iowa Chapter, national historian, national parliamentarian and chairman of the national public relations committee, membership chairman and vice president of the Iowa Chapter.

Buster was a fair all-round athlete, a student of the English Language, a gifted public speaker and newspaper columnist. He liked to drink, dance and play both poker and

pinochle.

He is survived by three daughters, Dixie (Mrs. Donald) Nacke of Henderson, Nev., Virginia (Mrs. Thomas) Orendorf of Oconomowoc, Wis., and Carolyn (Mrs. Michael)

Foley of Boerne, Texas; one son, Lance D. (Carmen) Davenport, Merida, Venezuela; 13 grandchildren; numerous great-grandchildren; and a

sister, Jane (Mrs. Robert) Liddy of Davenport.

He was predeceased by his wife, Vierlyn; his parents; one brother, William Greeley Davenport; three sisters, Grayce (Mrs. Arleigh) Carter, Merle (Mrs. J.C.) Anderson and Nancy (Mrs. R. Neal) Robertson; and three half sisters, Maye Davenport, Ethel (Mrs. Harold) Hartman and Joyce (Mrs. Clyde) Venable.