- Date Of Birth: August 28, 1920
- Date Of Death: October 22, 2010
- State: Michigan
Sheridan, Michigan
Age 90, Went to be with the Lord on Friday, October 22, 2010
He was born Aug. 28, 1920 in Ionia, Michigan, the son of Wilbert and Sarah Hawn who resided at 439 Union St., Ionia, MI.
Married Aug. 5th, 1944, to Virginia M. “Ginny” Hanson of Ionia, MI, by her father the Dr. and Reverend Henry A. Hanson.
Vic Graduated from Ionia High School in 1940, where he played center on the school basketball team for 3 years. After school he worked as a butcher in a local market to help support his family. Vic met his future wife, Ginny a stunning looking Episcopalian minister’s daughter, of all places, on the beach at Grand Haven State Park. Things were no different back then for a red blooded American boy.
Veteran of WWII (from Oct. 1942-Nov. 1945) in Rhineland Central Europe with the 103rd Division of Company M, 157th Infantry. Received 2 Bronze Stars, Good Conduct Medal and a WWII Victory Medal. Vic has been a regular attendee of the annual Division Reunions that meet in a different city each year.
He attended St. Louis University, in St. Louis, MO, for cadet training for the Air Force.
Vic and Ginny, now a college grad and an Aeronautical Engineer, got married during the war and started Hawn’s Bridge Street Market in Belding. After post war hard times and both working a couple jobs, they sold the market and Vic became a mail carrier for the Belding Post Office.
After several years, they moved from Belding to Long Lake in Fenwick, MI Post Office where he was a rural mail carrier for both Post Offices.
Vic and Virginia are long standing members of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Ionia and prior to that Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Belding.
He was a member of Belding Junior Chamber of Commerce, Rural Mail Carrier’s Association, church Elder, VFW and the American Legion Clubs of Belding and Greenville, served as President of the Belding & Greenville Sportsman’s Club and Lion’s Club District 11-C-1 Governor. One of Vic’s biggest passions in the Lion’s Club was as the Chairman of the International Youth Exchange. Vic & Virginia traveled all over Europe, meeting some of the student families while placing foreign students in local Belding area family homes.
Vic had many hobbies. He was an avid sportsman and really enjoyed getting out in nature. Inspired by being a member of the Sportsman’s Club, he took hunting and fishing trips to Canada, was a regular deer hunter in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, even back when you had to take a ferry across to the upper peninsula. From his early experience as a butcher, he became one of the local deer processors for area hunters. Vic liked to work with his hands and do things for other people. He built and repaired antique furniture as well as making many needed custom projects for the church. He liked to do wood carving, painting, and every wood working project you can imagine in his expansive wood shop.
Vic had a friend, Clarence Sparks, that was a beekeeper (apiarists). When Clarence became ill, Vic took over his honey business. It started out small, but in no time with lots of help from the family, he had over 150 hives and was selling honey to all of the markets in about a 50 mile radius. Vic and Ginny would go to the Michigan State Fair every year to display their honey products. They took 1st prizes for years and sold just about all of the honey that they brought to the fair.
Vic and Ginny have traveled and established friends over a lot of the world. Several trips to Europe and Alaska, all over the Holy Lands, Mexico, Hawaii, and even Russia and some of the Iron Block countries. They have hiked the Chilkoot Gold Rush Trail and over the glaciers in Alaska and all over Isle Royal in Lake Superior. They both liked to swim and water ski. Snowbirds to Florida for over 20 years, they would escape the Michigan winters. For the rest of Michigan’s seasons the past 5 years, they have been residing in a more manageable house on Pearl Lake in Sheridan.
Victor will be remembered by all for his unselfish and caring attitude for family and friends. He will be missed very much. He is survived by his wife, Virginia M. Hawn; children, Michael “Mike” Hawn and his wife, Deborah and Victoria “Vicki” Deatherage and her husband, Wayne; grandchildren, Brad Parker and his wife, Julie Brian Parker and his wife, Nikki, Tori Deatherage, Scott Deatherage and his wife, Amanda, Mike Deatherage and his wife, Tina; 10 great grandchildren; 1 great-great grandchild. He was preceded in death by his parents, Wilbert and Sarah Hawn of Ionia; sister, Crystal Stencel of Ionia and brother, Howard Hawn of Lansing.
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