Obituaries / LJWorld.com

Obituaries

Funeral services for Charley Berton Henson, 92, Lawrence, will be at 1 p.m. Monday at Warren-McElwain Mortuary. Burial with military honors will follow at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Mr. Henson died Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009, at Medicalodges Eudora.
He was born Aug. 22, 1917, in Bates County near Amsterdam, Mo., the son of James Henry and Ida Belle Webber Henson.
He was a World War II veteran. He joined the Marine Corps on June 1, 1941, and was honorably discharged on Feb. 28, 1947. He served in the South Pacific until June 1943 on the ship Enterprise as an anti-aircraft gunner. He was on the Enterprise near Pearl Harbor when it was bombed in 1941 and remembered seeing the Japanese bombers as they left Pearl Harbor, and the destruction to the base in Hawaii. The last 18 months of his military service were served in Kodiak, Alaska, on recruiting duty for eight western states. While living in Emporia, he served as one of the first color guards in the first Veterans Day Parade in Emporia.
He worked at Constance Utility Co. in Lawrence from 1947 until 1951. From 1951 until 1977, he worked as a lineman for Kansas Power and Light Company in Emporia and Lawrence. Upon retiring from KP&L, he and his wife became “snowbirds” for 11 years. He returned to Lawrence in 1988.
He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Alford-Clarke Post 852, IBEW union, and Heritage Baptist Church.
He married Milly Moore Mounkes in 1948. She died Jan. 3, 1990.
Other survivors include a stepson, Gary Mounkes and wife Sara, Reading; a sister, Dorothy Jean Hawkins, Gower, Mo.; a great-grandson, Charles R. Mounkes; a daughter-in-law, Mary Fugate and husband Floyd; a granddaughter-in-law, Jan East and husband Mike; and many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents; two stepsons, Robert and Neil Mounkes; two brothers, Claude and Lee; four sisters, Carry Luckan, Lottie Nelson, Lena Snell and Opal Henson; and a grandson, William E. “Bill” Mounkes.
The family will greet friends from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. before the service at the mortuary.
The family suggests memorials to Heart of America Hospice, VFW Alford-Clarke Post No. 852, or Heritage Baptist Church, sent in care of the mortuary.
Online condolences may be sent at warrenmcelwain.com, subject: Henson.