Horace 'Hoss' Downing (1949-2019)
Horace ‘Hoss’ Downing, 71, passed away Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019.
Services will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9 at the Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church of Villisca, Iowa. Visitation will take place from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8 at Wolfe Funeral Home.
Interment will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10 at the Marquette Cemetery, Marquette, Kan.
Horace Young Downing was born Dec. 21, 1949 in Biloxi, Miss., the son of John David and Katherine Joyce (Williams) Downing. He was one of six children. Hoss graduated from high school with the Class of 1968 from Wilcox High School in California and went directly into the U.S. Marine Corps.
Hoss went through Boot Camp at Camp Pendleton. Upon graduation, he was sent to Vietnam where he served from March of 1969 to February of 1970. During this tour of duty, he received the Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device, Vietnam Service Medal with 1*, Rifle Sharpshooter Badge, Combat Action Ribbon, Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation with Palm & Frame, the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm, the Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal as well as other medals and commendations. In 1984 he served at the NAS Joint Reserve Base at Carswell Field in Fort Worth, Texas where he was the S-3 Training Chief as well as OIC of Military Police. He spent six months at the MAS, in Beaufort, S.C., readying machinery and supplies to be shipped to Iraq during Desert Storm/Desert Shield. Upon his return to Fort Worth, he continued leading the S-3 training.
Since Hoss and his wife Cheri moved to Villisca, Iowa in April of 2014, he has been associated with Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church of Villisca. He was very proud to be of Cherokee heritage through the Gathering Tribe of Pennsylvania. He was also proud that his family accounted for 400 years of military service without a death during those years.
Hoss was preceded death by his parents and his brothers John and Rohn.
He is survived by his wife, Cheri of Villisca; daughter, Kathy (Jessie) Simmons and son, Robert Downing both of Oskaloosa; step-daughter, Patricia (Robert) Gonzales of Kelso, Wash.; 12 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; sisters, Ann Katz of Elkhorn, Neb., Lei Smith of Lewisville, Neb., and Mary K. Downing of Springfield, Neb.; aunt Wanda Downing, of Arlington, Texas, and many other relatives and friends.
Memorials may be made to the Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church Parking Lot Fund or the Villisca Food Pantry in care of Wolfe Funeral Home, PO Box 203, Clarinda, Iowa 51632.
Wolfe Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.