LINDA MARIE PENNINGER HENRY

Linda Marie (Penninger) Henry passed away September 19, 2022, at Cox Hospital in Springfield, Missouri.

She was born to Ralph Spafford “Sonny” Penninger, Jr. and Winona Marie “Brownie” (Montgomery) Penninger in Kansas City, Missouri, on April 23, 1943. Sonny was in the U.S. Army at the time in Georgia and had been injured. As a result, Linda was raised over the first six months by her grandparents, Oscar and Temple Montgomery with whom she had a lifelong affection. Her father had to have his leg amputated but came back to his home in Mountain View, Missouri, and later in Summersville, Missouri, where he and Brownie managed a branch of Penninger’s Store (a general store at the time). Unfortunately Sonny died at the age of 23 from cancer. Her mother later married James Penninger, Sonny’s brother.

Linda was raised in Mountain View and attended school there. She was a cheerleader, played a saxophone in the band, sang in the choir, and participated in the drama club. She was also active in the Presbyterian Church. After graduation she attended William Woods College in Westminster, Missouri for a year and then Miss Hickeys Secretarial School in St. Louis. She worked at Owens Illinois Glass while in St. Louis. 

While attending William Woods she started going with her future husband, Howard (John to some) Henry while he was attending what is now known as Missouri S & T in Rolla, who also grew up with her in Mountain View. They were married on April 9, 1966, in Mountain View and started their marriage in Rolla. After Howard’s graduation they lived in many different places starting in Ozark, Arkansas, where he was involved with building the Ozark Lock and Dam.  After a year there they moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where he entered the US Army as an officer, then on to Stuttgart, Germany, where their daughter Laura was born, then to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they learned what cold was “35 below zero”.  

When Howard was laid off from that company that was having financial difficulties, he joined C. H. Leavell in Sacrament, California, where he was involved in building the Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant. Linda was always an excellent seamstress and made many different items including a suit, and leisure suits for the family. She also started many craft projects. The family was transferred to north of Chicago in 1974 for a shopping center project and after the nice weather in Sacramento they did not care for that area. However, they were able to adopt their son, Timothy while there.

Fortunately, Howard was transferred to Orange County, California to be the Project Manager on the Brea Mall. This was a slice of heaven with great year-round weather. She continued her crafts and sewing, and she and Howard started square dancing in a club with his cousins, Dick and Bonnie Hoffmaster. When that company was sold, the California office was closed and another job search was on for Howard. He joined Turner Construction for work in Denver, Colorado, where they spent the next 25 years. While he was involved with some big projects like the Bronco Stadium, Linda and four other ladies started a business called Craft Peddlers, making crafts and putting on about two big sales a year. It was here that she started her favorite pastime, genealogy. She got into this almost full time besides still doing sewing and crafts. She and a cousin from Iowa wrote a book about a line on her mother’s side called “Jerimiah Brisco Latimer Lamira Berry Kinne”. She later joined the Daughters of the American Revolution on the Kinne line. She and Howard enjoyed Denver and became big Bronco fans and attending some games especially in the new stadium. 

Howard retired from Turner in 2006 and joined Flintco in Springfield, Missouri, which was the area they wanted to go to anyhow. It was while Howard was on his last job that Linda joined him in Tulsa for a short period. Unfortunately, she had to go to the ER with a high potassium episode and during her stay in the hospital she was put on dialysis. She was able to get on a couple of different kidney transplant lists and had a successful transplant at the Kansas University Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas in September of 2014. This worked well until just recently. Before leaving Colorado, she and Howard got their first and second motorhomes and enjoyed several trips. In 2015, they started doing the “snowbird” routine in going to Florida for the winter.

They spent five years at Cypress Woods RV Resort in Fort Myers, Florida and bought a lot there. They enjoyed the warm winters, the beaches, the people, and the resort very much. She was able to continue her genealogy almost daily. She experienced some heart issues and had a stent put in for four years in a row. This June, in Florida her transplanted kidney started failing and she spent a lot of time in hospitals before being able to be transported by air back to Springfield. She was able to go home for one day before going back with what was renal failure and heart failure both of which were probably related to being diabetic.  

She and Howard enjoyed many family reunions on both sides of the family in many places-besides this gave her an opportunity to some genealogy digging.

She is preceded in death by both of her fathers, Sonny and Jim; her mother, Brownie; her sister-in-law, Linda; and her father and mother-in-law, Herb and Helen Henry. She is survived by her husband, Howard, daughter, Laura currently in Guatemala; her son, Timothy in Mexico; her sisters, Pat (Bill) Webb and Barb (Lynn) Ipock both of Mountain View; brother, Bob (Christy) Penninger of Springfield; sister-in- law, Susie Wightman of St. Louis; and many nieces, a nephew, and many cousins and friends.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, September 23, at Yarber Mortuary, Mountain View, Missouri, with Diane Cook officiating. Visitation will be held on Thursday, September 22, from 6-8:00 p.m., also at the funeral home. Interment was in Greenlawn Cemetery in Mountain View. Memorial contributions may be made to the Presbyterian Church, Mountain View and left at the funeral home. Condolences may be expressed at www.yarbermortuary.com.