Wallis A. Weaver Obituary


Will Rogers once remarked, "I never met a man I didn’t like." Wally Weaver might well have said the same thing. He loved people.

Wally was born on February 3, 1915, in Dog Town, Alabama – a place he once described as "barely a wide place in the road." There, he attended a one-room school. In 1920, his father became a rural mail carrier in Nauvoo. Wally attended the primary school in Nauvoo and graduated from high school in Carbon Hill. He immediately went on to Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University). There, he met and married his wife, Katherine Reagh, a marriage that was to last more than 60 years, until her death in 2002.

After graduating from Auburn in 1938, Wally became an aeronautical engineer. This work was to take him all over the country and around the world. He served in the Civilian Conversation Corps (CCC) as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, training young men in San Clemente, California; Delta, Utah; and Cherry Creek, Nevada.

From 1940 to 1942, Wally attended Field Artillery School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. In 1942 he began his assignment in the U.S. Army Air Force (which was to change its name to the U.S. Air Force in 1947). At first he was a production engineer for fighter aircraft, but then he became involved with the selection, production, and shipment of air material for the invasion of North Africa.

In 1944, Wally was posted to a quasi-diplomatic post in the China Theater of World War II. His job was to authorize all travel on U.S. Army Air Force planes. Anyone who traveled in China at that time had to choose between a pack train, going by foot or boat, or traveling on a USAAF or Chinese National Airways Corporation plane. There were fewer than 50 passenger aircraft in all of China, so most people who traveled long distances eventually came to see Wally.

After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Wally was transferred from Chung King to Shanghai, HangKow, and finally Beijing. There he became part of a committee of three, managing airlifts. The committee included a representative from the Nationalist Chinese government, one from the Communist government, and Wally representing the United States. As he later remarked, "The unique result was that I always cast the deciding vote. Never did the Communist and Nationalist member ever agree on anything."

The years in China made a great impression on Wally and on Kate, who joined him there. But in 1947 it was time to return home – just in time for the birth of their daughter, Virginia. Their son Wallis Jr. followed two years later. Those were busy years. The Air Force moved Wally around the country (Scott Field, Illinois; Spokane, Washington; and later, Mobile, Alabama) and overseas to Upper Heyford, England. "Having a baby," Wally said, "was no excuse for not performing your duty." In 1966 Wally was assigned to Davis Montham Air Force Base in Tucson, where he was based until he retired.

It cannot be said that retirement slowed Wally down one iota. In retirement, Wally sold real estate for Century 21. He ground rocks (lapidary work) and made jewelry, becoming well known locally for his craftsmanship. He climbed mountains, including six 14,000 foot high peaks in Colorado and even Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states.

While in his seventies, Wally took up scuba diving. He also became a writer, producing 63 short autobiographical stories (called "PawPaw’s Weird Stories") and a novel, A Matter of Face, which is being published this year. And much of his time in later years was devoted to the steadfast and tender care of his wife, Kate, as she struggled with Alzheimer’s disease.

Before his wife’s illness, Wally was an active member of the Optimist Club of Sahuarita-Green Valley and served on the Pima County District 3 Board of Adjustment for 11 years.

From the beginning of his life to the end, one of Wally’s favorite things to do was talk, and one of his favorite topics was politics. Wally loved people and the more you disagreed with him, the more it delighted him. The author of this obituary was a great favorite with him, as she doesn’t think she ever agreed with him once. But there is one thing all people everywhere could learn from Wally, and that is that all human beings are equally worthy of respect. Wally was a gentleman who treated all people, regardless of their background in life, with deeply felt courtesy and respect.

Wally is survived by his children, Virginia and Wallis; by his sister, Barbara; by his friend and son-in-law Bob; by his niece, Karen; by his grandchildren, Bonnie and John, and by his great-grandchildren, Emma, Tristan, and Sally.

In honor of Wally’s love of mountain-climbing, and at his request, his ashes will be scattered over Elephant-Head.

Notes on Wallis Weaver by Don Dodd:

Wallis A. Weaver, Sr. "Wally," was born February 3, 1915 and died June 7, 2004. He was born in Nauvoo, AL and died in Tucson, Arizona.

Elephant’s Head is a mountain south of Sahuarita, Arizona where Wally’s two children Ginny and Wallis, Jr., spread his cremated ashes after a hike/climb of about six hours in rugged terrain and 95 degrees F in June Arizona heat.

Bonnie Juettner, Wally’s granddaughter, wrote the obituary.

Wally was the son of Henry Weaver, who was the son of Wesley Weaver, the son of Henry Weaver and postmaster at Delmar (1897 – 1914). Henry was the son of Peter W. Weaver, Jr., born in Georgia in 1812. (From page 164 of The Ancestors and Descendants of Alfred William Cunningham by Larry Auburn Newcomb and Franklin Newcomb.)


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