SHERIDAN -- Memorial services for W.V. "Vern" McNair, 89, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 15, 2006, at Kane Funeral Home with Deacon Joe Kristufek officiating. At his request, cremation has taken place.

He died July 7, 2006, at Westview Health Care Center.

He was born May 14, 1917, in Sheridan, to Clyde and Ethel (Richards) McNair.

He left Sheridan for a few years at the start of World War II. He was a machinist at Martin Aircraft in Nebraska.

He chose to enlist in the Marine Corps in 1943 and was involved in the Third Fleet Operation and in Okinawa.

He was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant in 1946.

He married the late Melba Gunter and they had one son, Larry. They later divorced.

He married Darlene Beedle Abbott on Jan. 16, 1982, in Buffalo.

He loved to fish and hunt. He was an avid reader, especially in his later years and enjoyed mysteries and westerns when it came to fiction.

He was a self-employed paint contractor, starting as an apprentice in 1949 and retiring at age 71.

Survivors include his wife of Sheridan, his son, Lawrence McNair and his wife of Daggett, Calif.; his two stepdaughters, Kathy "Kate" Taylor of Wickenburg, Ariz., and Laureen Dozier of Walnut Springs, Texas; two grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, his sister, Betty Raymond and her husband of Sheridan; two brothers and their wives, Bill McNair of Escondido, Calif., and Gene McNair of Sheridan and several nieces and nephews.

Memorials may be made in his name to Sheridan Senior Center or Sheridan Animal Shelter in care of Tara Keep, First Federal Savings Bank, P.O. Box 6007, Sheridan, 82801.

Casper Star-Tribune - July 11, 2006