Eddie Wood, Jr., took his last trip January 24, 2023 at the Columbia VA Hospital, three weeks before his 91st birthday. Living in Montgomery County most of his life, he started living at The Arbors in Mexico in January. Eddie was the last living member and youngest of three children in the Eddie Wood Sr. and Mary Weeks Wood family. He and wife Helen Bentley Wood had four children – Darrell, Deborah, Darin and Dana.
A farm kid before his parents moved to town, he saw meals delivered by women to long field tables, used a metal bed warmer and rode horse to one room school where his parents built a hitching post. Before buying a car, his dad took the reins of a horse drawn wagon with family covered in blankets crossing fields for Sunday visits. Eddie’s mom was ill at an early age; his dad taught him to cook a hearty breakfast.
A carpenter living on his own, he married Helen Bentley in 1954. The 1955 Army draft took them to Ft. Smith, Ark.; after basic training a sputtering Army plane delivered him to Ft. Lewis, Wash., in the Korean War. Eddie never wanted to fly, but acted like a frequent flyer years later in walking through the Dallas airport and seated at the quick connection gate earlier than Deborah in his first and only commercial flight! He stayed at Ft. Lewis, earning a Good Conduct Medal and advancing to SP4 delivering artillery across the large base. Remembering his dad used the family tractor (first tractor of Montgomery County) as extra income helping others, Eddie used his car as a rideshare for off-base soldiers. Raised during the Depression, Eddie and Helen knew how to save and stretch a dollar.
Honorably discharged in 1957, Eddie declined Tacoma jobs so he, Helen and Darrell could return to Missouri. His 36-year Oliver Trucking career took him across the U.S. as interstate semi-driver known as Whistler with flatbeds and livestock trailers. He never refused work, started the truck at any hour day/night in all types of weather with only a map and CB radio, did not want a cell phone, relied on memory and usually calculated math in his head. Helen’s day started alongside her husband while she prepared road meals or joined him with the kids. He always delivered the load – crossed Chicago Teamsters Wildcat Strike line when a brick hit the back window, bypassed weigh stations, restacked brick pallets by hand with tarp and straps, teamed with his sons for a tight timeline to Washington State and the 1st load of steel in the Denver Airport expansion. Earning safety awards, he was in the Mexico Ledger pictures for moving a house across town and taking the truck to excited Hardin Jr. High students. Approached for office jobs, Eddie preferred the cabover desk. OTI surprised him by giving him the truck he had been driving as a retirement gift – leading to a national trucking magazine story! Whistler was an independent owner-operator for two years.
Eddie and Helen moved from her hometown (with the U.S. flag pole he proudly installed at their house) to his hometown in 1995 where he could maintain and see his dad’s land from the patio. They managed two rental homes before he fully retired with coffee chats, trucking updates from Darrell, chauffeured drives by Darin, FaceTime and MO visits with Dana and her son from Sydney and grateful help from family and the community.
Eddie was preceded in death by his parents, siblings, wife and son Darin. Admired for his work ethic and determination, immediate family survivors include Darrell and wife Lisa, Deborah and Dana. Private services will be held at the Montgomery City Cemetery. Schlanker Funeral Home handled the arrangements.
