Bill Lee Arnold, age 95 passed away peacefully at St. Luke’s Nursing Center, Carthage, Missouri on April 1, 2024. He was born on January 11, 1929, in Morrisville, Missouri, the son of Clarence and Helen (Wilkins) Arnold. He graduated from Lamar High School in 1946 and joined the US Navy immediately, serving until 1947. He was stationed in Guam. On April 18, 1947, He married Bonnie Jean Dodson in Girard, Kansas. The couple had two sons and he was proud of them both. Bill worked with Lawn Boy as a machine operator and quality control inspector. The Lawn Boy plant moved to Illinois: Bill worked for Lawn Boy 11 years before they moved. O’Sullivan Industries moved to Lamar, and he got a job as a quality control inspector and cost estimator for TV cabinets. In 1970 he started working for HE Williams Products company in Carthage. He was a cost estimator for their light fixtures and later transitioned to personnel manager hiring production employees. Bill retired after working 25 years with HE Williams. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Carthage. His favorite pastime was fishing with his best buddies Bonnie, Gary, and Kenny. They fished from Canada to the Panama Canal. They loved to travel.
Bill is preceded in death by his parents Clarence and Helen Arnold; one brother Clarence Arnold Jr. (known as Yippee); and his wife Bonnie passed from this earth and went to Heaven on April 19, 2023.
He is survived by his two sons; Gary Lee Arnold and his wife Judy of Holts Summit, Missouri, and Kenneth Ray Arnold and his wife Audrey of Tucson, Arizona; four surviving grandchildren, Ben Arnold and his wife Missy, Cathy Heckmaster and her husband Dustin, Laura Gardiner, Lisa Kirk and husband Jim; six great-grandchildren, Alex and Austin Arnold, Addison and Owen Heckmaster, Nathan Kirk and Hannah Arocha. There is one great-great grandson, Finlee Austyn Arnold.
Bill was a truly remarkable person and a great fisherman. The family greatly appreciates the loving and compassionate care he received from St Luke’s Nursing Center in Carthage as well as the competent care from Phoenix Hospice.
There will be a graveside service held for Bill at 2:00 PM at the Dudman Springs Cemetery on Friday, April 5, 2024. A visitation will be held prior to the service from 12:30 to 1:30 PM at Ulmer Funeral Home on Friday, April 5, 2024.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Lamar High School “Class of 1968” Scholarship Fund c/o Ulmer Funeral Home.
Online condolences may be made at www.ulmerfh.com.
Arrangements are under the direction of Ulmer Funeral Home.
