Bill J. Whitley
June 30, 1932-May 26, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 10:57 AM PDT
Vale
Bill J. Whitley died suddenly on May 26, 2009. Bill was born in George West, Live Oak County, Texas, on June 30, 1932.
Bill spent the first 15 years of his life in Texas before moving to the West Coast in 1947. He settled in Ukiah in 1952 and worked in the tire business for many years. That’s when and where Bill got interested in car racing both as a mechanic and a driver. As his family explained, “He’d wreck them on the weekend and fix them during the week.”
He left Ukiah and moved to Burns and then Molalla, Ore., where he owned and operated a gas station.
He married Carrie Marie Monnier, May 16, 1958. They had three children: Linda Marie born 1959, Jerry Eugene born in 1960 and Diana Jean born in 1965. They moved to Las Vegas in 1966, and he then went to work for the Becktel Corporation in Bullhead City in 1967.
The family moved to Vale, Ore., in 1970. There Bill built an auto repair shop that later became Whitley Machinery. He also started farming, growing alfalfa and raising cattle.
Whitley Machinery expanded and started specializing in irrigation equipment and repair. Bill owned and operated the company until 1955 when his son Jerry took over the business and Bill started his “Retirement Career.”
Bill had a wide variety of interests, hobbies and passions. He enjoyed traveling, making numerous trips to Alaska and Canada.
He was an avid gold prospector and traveled throughout the Northwest and Arizona. But he would really prospect for gold anywhere he could find it.
One of his favorite sports to watch was Nascar racing. He attended the Brickyard 400 Nascar race at the Indianapolis Speedway, which was one of his Nascar highlights.
Whenever Bill traveled he knew someone and everybody knew him. Bill was preceded in death by his parents, Jack Edward Whitley, in 1952, and Opal Geneva Teague, in 2000; brother, Nathan Lee “Jack” Whitley, in 1978; his wife and mother of his children, Carrie Marie Monnier Whitley, in April of 1993; and his daughter, Linda Marie Whitley Oppenheimer, in March of 2002.
Bill is survived by his son, Jerry Whitley, of Vale, Ore.,; daughter, Diana Jean Carey, and her husband, Keith; grandchildren, Kristian and Desiree, of Lovelock, Nev., and granddaughter Tara Oppenheimer, of Seattle, Wash.; brothers, John Whitley, of Marsing, Idaho, and Ray Whitley, of Fruitland, Idaho; sister Geneva (Bill) Welch, of Grand Junction, Colo.; numerous in-laws and cousins; and his best friend and love, Paula Minghetti, who shared the same interest in traveling, gold prospecting and who made him very happy during the fun times they had together.
In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to a cancer charity of your choice in honor of Bill J. Whitley.
