Walter Alfred Vonnegut

Walter Alfred "Colonel" Vonnegut born Dec. 5, 1922 Jefferson, Kentucky died Jan. 9, 2013 Anacortes, Washington Burial: Grand View Cemetery Anacortes Skagit County Washington

married 14 Aug 1943 Lauderdale, Tennessee Helen Ruth McFarland born a9 Dec 1922 died 11 Mar 1994

Children:

i Kit Vonnegut born Guemes Island married Beth [-?-]

ii Ken Vonnegut m. Kari [-?-]

Walter Vonnegut , like many young men of his day, was eager to enlist after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941."I wanted to be a fighter pilot," he said, but was not accepted. He enlisted as a buck private in the Army Air Corps, then reapplied to be a pilot, but again with no luck. "They said if I went to basic I'd get myself killed or get others killed," he said. "I was reclassified for navigation." And so he flew as a navigator in B-17s for the Eighth Air Force out of England, part of the 381st Heavy Bombardment Group

Early one day as they flew over Holland after a bombing run in Germany's Ruher Valley, the plane came under heavy attack. Vonnegut remembered it moment by moment.

"There were anti-aircraft puffs and the plane was jumping with concussion," he said with the timing of a born storyteller."The pilot lost a couple of engines and decided we needed to bail out."The pilot's signal to abandon the plane was called the "bailout bell," Vonnegut said."It was loud, scary, brassy - the end of the world, I thought."

Though the crew had not parachuted in their training, they tumbled from the plane now to save their lives."There wasn't much to it, really, you just get out the best you can and count to five before pulling the rip chord," Vonnegut said. He said he counted far past five, but still opened his chute too soon, around 10,000 feet.

Vonnegut spoke of floating to the ground that day in the fall of 1943 almost as if it were a separate story by itself - time out of mind, blessedly above terrestrial concerns."I do remember thinking vividly ‘but the question is, is my memory accurate?' in my mind's eye I could see what was beneath me, and off in the distance on my right there was a great expanse of farmland, and train tracks and a train choo-chooing along and the smoke coming out of the stacks.

"I remember thinking it looked like New Jersey," he deadpanned."Really, I can't say why, but it did.It reminded me of a drive I once took through New Jersey. It was peaceful , and there was no war down there, just a lovely scene of the countryside."

A German prisoner Vonnegut landed in a plowed field, mindful of instructions to go limp as he hit the ground to avoid breaking bones. He s towed his chute and equipment and hid in bushes as he heard voices approach "several people walked nearby with a dog.The dog found me, yapping in my face," he said.

He said a young man dressed in a black turtleneck sweater and wooden shoes spoke to him in English, offering assistance."I climbed out, but I hadn't moved more than 10 feet when we both spied a German sergeant coming out of the woods with a pistol in his hand, and he pointed it at me." Vonnegut said the young Dutchman whispered, "Can't help you anymore," and backed away.The German troops marched him off toward a rustic, two-story hotel in the woods that served as their headquarters."There was no question but that they had me," Vonnegut said."There was no way I could get away - if I did they would have shot me dead."

He was interrogated in a verbally rough manner at first, Vonnegut said, but in time the German officer read his dog tags and learned he was an officer, too: "The minute he saw that he immediately lightened up.I was a fellow officer."

Vonnegut told of other interrogations, of fabricating experiences to them to obscure what he knew and of full timately being sent to a camp called Vonnegut Stalag Luft 1, near the Baltic Sea. He spent a year and a half there. He said it was rough at times, but that he was fairly and humanely treated by the Germans."I've emphasized to people that it wasn't a bad experience."

The advancing Russian army liberated his camp, he said, on May 1, 1945.

After his degree at the U.C., Vonnegut said he and Helen visited friends on Guemes Island, and fell in love with the area.They moved to Guemes, where they lived for 15 years.

Vonnegut started teaching, and in 1949 took the job as the sole teacher at the one-room Guemes School, where he taught students in grades one through four."Frankly, I was a little bored a lot of the time with grades one, two and three," he said. Eventually, he taught in Anacortes proper, at the middle and, finally, high school levels.In the late 1960s Vonnegut earned a master's degree in drama from the University of Washington.

The group that would become Anacortes Community Theatre, Vonnegut said, started with a suggestion that got written up by Wallie Funk, in his column in the Anacortes American in 1963.The group attained official nonprofit status the next year.

Another untimely death in Vonnegut 's life was that of his first wife, Helen, who was killed in her car on the way to a local nursery in March of 1994." She was going there and she never came back," Vonnegut said.

Vonnegut began to pull out of his grieving about six months later when he met Jean De Zan, a widow since 1988, who invited him to a church group gathering.The two became friends quickly and easily, and his family approved of the match.The two married in less than a year.

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Walter A. Vonnegut (Colonel), 90, long-time resident of Anacortes, passed away peacefully at his home, on January 9, 2013, surrounded by family. He is remembered as a husband, father, actor, director, carpenter, master craftsman, and book lover who instilled a lifelong love of reading in his children.

Those who have known him for many years call him Colonel, a childhood nickname. He was born in Kentucky, spent his childhood in New York City and Hollywood. His teen years were spent in Indianapolis, during which time he and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (cousin and author) were great pals.

He wed Helen McFarland in 1943, and was married 50 years until her untimely death in March of 1994.

During World War II he served as a navigator on a B-17. In November 1943 he had to bail out of the stricken aircraft over enemy held territory. He was a prisoner of war in Germany until May, 1945.

After the war he, with his wife Helen and son Kit, moved from Indianapolis to Guemes Island, living for a time in a log house he built, and later in a newer home he also built, on a bluff overlooking the water. During the early years on Guemes there was no electricity or telephone service, and he, with others, was instrumental in bringing electricity to the island. During this period, his son Ken was born. He taught at the Guemes Island one-room schoolhouse, instructing grades one through three. He then transferred to Anacortes where he taught math at Central Junior High, and later English and Drama at Anacortes High School. He retired in 1978. He served as Director of Head Start for two years. He earned a Bachelors Degree from the University of Chicago, and a Masters Degree in Drama from the University of Washington.

In 1962 the family moved from Guemes Island to Anacortes, where he has resided ever since.

Walter has spent a lifetime in the theatre. His parents, Walter Vonnegut and Marjorie Vonnegut , were professional actors. Walter lived with his mother in New York City, and both appeared in productions there, including the original Broadway production of "Ah Wilderness". He was eleven years old at the time.

While a prisoner during World War II he was involved in many of the theatrical presentations in the prison camp. In 1964 he was one of the founding members of the Anacortes Community Theatre, and is fondly remembered as an active participant in many shows over a more than 40-year span as director, actor, set builder and board member.

He was a builder, a master carpenter who is responsible for many projects and home improvements in his own homes, as well as many in the homes of his sons, friends and in the Anacortes United Methodist Church.

He was predeceased by his first wife, Helen M. Vonnegut , and his sister Ruth Carroll, of San Diego.

He is survived by his wife Jean, whom he married in 1995, and his two sons, Kit Vonnegut (Beth) of Lynden, and Ken Vonnegut (Kari) of Bow, grandsons Bruce Vanderpool and Sean Vonnegut , both of Seattle, Danny Donnelly (Mount Vernon), and Eirik Donnelly (Los Angeles), and son-and-daughter-in-law Larry and Alba Stevens, of Anacortes.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Anacortes Community Theatre in his name or to Hospice of the Northwest.

A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at the Anacortes United Methodist Church, 2201 H Avenue, Anacortes, WA. A private family graveside service will be held at Grand View Cemetery in Anacortes.

Arrangements are in the care of Evans Funeral Chapel and Crematory, Inc., Anacortes, WA and the San Juan Islands.

Vonnegut Family Index