Warren Wilson

Carl Warren Wilson, 97, of Stover, Mo. passed away Nov. 4, 2020 at Golden Age Nursing Home in Stover. He was born to Carl Benjamin Wilson and Edna Poe Baquet Wilson in a home along the Osage River in Purvis, Mo. on Sept. 7, 1923.

In 97 full years of living, Warren saw many things from the building of Bagnell Dam to pandemic.

The home and farm where he was born now lies under the waters of Lake of the Ozarks after the building of the dam.

Warren attended Gravois High School in Gravois Mills, Mo., playing on the basketball team. After high school, he attended the University of Missouri-Columbia until America was attacked at Pearl Harbor.

Enlisting in the Army in 1943, Warren became part of the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving as an airplane mechanic, and was assigned to Japan at the end of the war. He received an honorable discharge in February 1946 and returned home to Morgan County.

Warren married Linda Lou Morris of Versailles, Mo. on March 31, 1946. They had three sons, Carl Morris, Earl Warren and Merl Kirtley, and shared 70 years of marriage until her death on Sept. 27, 2016.

He and his father farmed along a creek bottom in southern Morgan County until Warren bought a farm just south of Stover in 1954. On this farm, he raised cattle as well as running a successful feed store. He was half-owner of two fertilizer plants, in Stover and Versailles, and part owner in feed stores in Versailles and Lincoln. In 1968, he got out of the feed business and went into trucking, hauling farm products.

Perhaps his one regret in life was not finishing his college education, and Warren worked hard with his sons’ help to put all three of them through college. In 1974, Earl joined him in business, long-haul trucking and expanding the farm. In the early 1980s, they expanded the farm again with Kirt joining them. Selling their truck in 1986, they continued to farm beef cattle together. Warren never quit working the farm, helping make hay every summer through 2020. Up until a couple months of his death, he could be seen in his old Leyland tractor raking hay.

Warren touched many lives throughout his life and served his community faithfully. He was a longtime member and former commander of the Galloway-Martens American Legion Post in Stover, and attended many parades and funerals as part of the Post’s Honor Guard. Warren was active for several years in the Stover Lions Club and on the Stover Fair Board of Directors. He also served on the Morgan County R-I Board of Education when the old high school gym was built. Warren was a current member of the Stover Cemetery Association Board of Directors when he passed away. He attended Stover United Methodist Church and served on the administrative council.

Understanding the value of hard work, he passed that ethic on to his sons. While in the feed business, he and his boys delivered feed to area farmers 365 days a year, even Christmas Day.

But Warren also knew how to enjoy life, and his favorite pastime was hunting raccoons loving both his hounds and the camaraderie of his hunting buddies. For many years, he raised and trained Plott hounds, most notably two Grand Nite champions, Wilson’s Rusty and Wilson’s Ranger. He won a multitude of hunting trophies over the years.

Always a hunter, Warren got his first Plott hound after returning home from military service and never hunted with another breed. He served on the board of the National Plott Hound Association and was the only member to attend every Plott Days from 1954 to 2020. He leased land to build the Lake of the Ozarks Coon Club and hunted up until a few weeks of his death.

Warren was known for his storytelling and humor with an amazing memory of the old days. He could recall people cutting ice blocks out of the Osage River in the winter, going with work crews at the age of six to cut trees and tie them down along the river to prepare for the new reservoir, Lake of the Ozarks, as well as the neighborhood farewell picnic when the waters were set to rise.

He will also be remembered by his family for his toughness, running off a loose bull in his yard with a helping of buckshot two days after returning home from open heart surgery, surviving the roof coming off the barn where he was working during a storm and defeating lung cancer at the age of 92. But it was the return of cancer this fall that finally took his life. He lived at home on the farm up until a few days of his passing.

Warren was preceded in death by his parents, Carl and Poe, his wife Linda, sister and brother-in-law Stella and Wrex Garrison and brother-in-law Gene Taylor.

Survivors include his sons, Carl, Earl and wife Lynn, Kirt and wife Jo; six grandchildren, Ben, Amy, Cody, Angela, Chris and Kyle; nine great-grandchildren and another on the way, Ryan, Bailey, Connor, Khloe, Kelsey, Tatiana, Alexandra, Jacob and Zachary; sister Juanita Taylor; several nieces and nephews; and many other relatives and friends.

Funeral services are Saturday, November 14, 2020 at 12:00 noon at the Stover United Methodist Church with Pastor Diane Cutler officiating. Burial with full military honors will be in the Stover Cemetery.

The family will receive friends from 10:00 a.m. until the time of service on Saturday at the Stover United Methodist Church.

The family has requested masks in the church and social distancing will be observed.

Memorial contributions are suggested to the Stover United Methodist Church, Galloway Martens Post 343 or the Stover Cemetery.

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Visitation Stover United Methodist Church Saturday, November 14, 2020 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM 206 North Hickory Street
Stover, MO 65078 Directions Funeral Service Stover United Methodist Church Saturday, November 14, 2020 12:00 PM 206 North Hickory Street
Stover, MO 65078 Directions