Chester Lee McWhorter, Sr., (87) Chet to his friends and Chetty to those who loved him, passed away peacefully, at 4:45pm on Saturday May 19th 2018 after a short and valiant battle against pneumonia at Seven Rivers Hospital in Crystal River, Florida.
He is survived by his loving wife of 67 years, Mary Ann (Wills) originally of Roanoke, VA; son Chester Lee, Jr. (Patricia) of Martinsburg, WV; daughter Jo Len (Dana) of Leesburg, FL; grandsons Lee Danial (Athena) and Brad David (Briana); and three beloved great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister Edna Mae Maynard of Parkersburg, WV and two nephews in WV.
Chetty was preceded in death by his baby boy David Lee; father John McWhorter of Huntington, WV; mother Grace Lillian (Clay) Freshour, best friend and step-father Morford Harold Freshour, both formerly of Parkersburg, WV who both passed away in Inverness, FL.
Chetty was born in September of 1930 in Barboursville, WV and went from humble beginnings as a “barefoot farm boy” to a city kid in Huntington, where he joined the Air Force out of high school in 1948. He served in: Germany, Italy, Libya, California, New Mexico and other bases. He participated in the Berlin Air Lift and was due to deploy from Sacramento to the Bikini Atoll area for nuclear bomb testing when his first-born passed away and his orders cancelled.
Upon his honorable discharge from the Air Force he first worked as a Crypto/teletype technician for the Army at Ft. Bragg then started a long career working with the space program at Cape Canaveral, first for JPL then the Eastern Test Range, Goddard Space Center and Marshall Space Flight Center, as an electronics technician on the Explorer, Pioneer and Mariner programs, then on the manned Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. He traveled around the world to build tracking stations, worked high on launch gantries to install radio antennas and strung communications cable inside the VAB at Kennedy. He was onboard the U.S.S. Wasp during three of the Gemini recovery missions but left Florida for Alabama and the Defense Department during the Apollo program. He later worked for the Army’s 7th Signal Command and Conus installation command as a field engineer. Chet retired as the communications branch chief from the Drug Enforcement Agency in 1985. He followed his government career with several private contracts to upgrade communications capabilities for Montgomery Ward, Sears and the Veterans Administration.
He was a former member of the Masonic Lodge of Hedgesville, WV, attaining the 32nd degree; and a Life Member of the National Rifle Association. He was a Life Member of VFW Post 4337 and the American Legion. He fell in love with Florida during the sixties and moved to Citrus County permanently upon his final retirement to pursue his love of fishing and hunting and to follow his interests in Southern history, genealogy, conservative freedom and patriotism.
Chet will be cremated and returned to his family for private disposition. The final arrangements are handled by the Chas. E. Davis Funeral Home of Inverness.
In lieu of flowers, please send a donation in Chetty’s name to one of his favorite causes; The National D-Day Memorial Foundation, PO Box 77, Bedford, VA 24523, 540-586-3329, www.dday.org.
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