With loved ones at his side and many more sending love from afar, Stan Withrow died on the evening of August 12, 2022, in Austin, TX, at the age of 80. Complications from a recent surgery were sadly too much for his body to overcome.
Stanley Duane Withrow was born December 30, 1941 in Hutchinson, KS, where he spent most of his childhood. He was the third of four boys born to Roy and Lucinda Withrow (née Waldo). He is pre-deceased by his parents, brothers Warren and Bryce, and ex-wife Becky. His eldest brother, Gary, still resides in Hutchinson.
After graduating from Partridge High School, his decades in the fast food restaurant business took him to several towns in the Midwest. In the ’70s, he proudly owned the Top Boy restaurant in Mattoon, IL, where his employees appreciated his skillful management.
“Shifting gears” in mid-life, he moved to Victoria, TX, and tried his hand at the home improvement and restaurant equipment sales businesses. Later, he moved back to Hutchinson, where he supervised custodial care at the Reno County courthouse, where both his father and mother had worked in previous years. Stan also worked at other facilities in the Hutchinson area, including the Eaton employee facility and Hutchinson Community College. Even after retirement, he enjoyed helping out with the yearly NJCAA basketball tournament.
Free time would find him at garage sales, playing Bingo, fishing, or on road trips with Bryce to nowhere in particular, stopping to check out vintage cars wherever one might appear.
“Shifting gears” again, he sold the house in Hutchinson and moved back to Texas in 2013, to Austin this time.
After retirement, Stan enjoyed rail and road trips, especially recurring Route 66 excursions, a trip through the American South with family, and a recent tour of Civil War and Civil Rights sites with his brother, Gary.
He was an avid record collector for much of his life, using music for entertainment and solace. After a long day at work, he might set up a stack of Easy Listening or Country LPs and softly sing along. In a car with the radio on, you could tell he was happy when his fingers started tapping on the steering wheel in time with the beat. One of his personally favorite claims to fame was that he won a singing contest at around the age of 5 at the Central EUB church in Hutchinson. Late in life, he found an outlet for his long-held political and social views by singing civil rights songs in no fewer than five state Capitol buildings, even if this otherwise unassuming man had to sing by himself!
Gary remembers Stan being a whiz at making chocolate mayonnaise cakes as a child. He could make peanut brittle from scratch and often volunteered to cook the Thanksgiving turkey, even in his 70s.
Besides current events and the St. Louis Cardinals, his favorite topic of conversation was family. It didn’t take much prompting to get him to tell nostalgic — and often hair-raising — tales about his childhood and the people he got to know over the years. Sunday evenings at his house in Hutchinson would find multiple generations of family busy with games, munching on pizza, and unconsciously absorbing the tunes playing — always playing — in the background. Songs by The Everly Brothers, Loretta Lynn, Roger Miller, Marty Robbins, crooners from the 50s, Tanya Tucker, Elvis (of course), and so many more, will forever evoke the memory of Stan AKA Daddy AKA Grandpa AKA Pop-Pop.
He is survived by brother Gary Withrow of Hutchinson, KS; children James Withrow and Anne Withrow of Austin, TX, and Ellen Hutton of Wichita, KS, as well as their mother, Marcia Funk Withrow of Austin,TX. Stan will also be lovingly remembered by grandchildren Sean Izard, Amanda Willhoit, Stephen Hutton, and Allyson Simmons and great-grandchildren Riley, Kasen, Tyler, Rebecca, Jordan, Aurora, Keegan, Vivian, Skyler, Ryan, and Jayden, as well as countless other relatives, friends, and co-workers who appreciated his easy-going nature and wry sense of humor.
Those who loved him are thankful for the years he shared with us, although that could never have been long enough. He was — to use his own highest praise — “good company.”
