Obituary: Overbeck, Harold
Age 99
OVERBECK,
Harold L.
“Harry”
Harold Overbeck passed quietly away surrounded by family on Saturday, August 18th at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington.
Born in Elgin, Iowa to George and Nellie Overbeck on August 7th, 1913, he had just enjoyed celebrating his 99th birthday at Good Samaritan Homes in Greenacres where he had lived since October.
A month after he was born he, his sister, Dorothy and brother, Leo, and parents moved to Glenfield, North Dakota where over the next few years he was joined by two more brothers, Clifford and Gayle and two sisters, Ruby and Gladys.
He grew up in Glenfield enjoying school, baseball, lots of dances and Halloween pranks.
At a young age probably 12 or 13 he started driving the school bus which was a horse drawn wagon.
As the years passed he joined the CCCs and worked in Utah and Idaho.
In the summers he and close friends were known to hop trains in Glenfield and ride to Spokane to work on his Uncle Guy Peters’ farm near Fairfield, WA.
In 1941 he had just joined the Army when Pearl Harbor was bombed and war was declared.
It was within five days that his battalion was on their way to San Francisco.
After guarding many areas in the Pacific Northwest, they boarded a ship headed to an unknown destination.
They touched land in Australia and then headed to New Caledonia and onto such battle areas as Guadalcanal and Midway.
After months of being under siege and defeating the Japanese, his unit was moved to New Caledonia and to India.
There his unit joined Merrill’s Marauders which battled in Burma where he contracted malaria and spent over five months in an Indian hospital.
He returned to Glenfield in February of 1945.
Harold married Olga Fadness in Jamestown, North Dakota, on December 22nd, 1945.
They had one daughter (Jan) and three sons (LaVerne, Bruce and Daryl) born there and after pursuing several business ventures and farming, they decided to move to Spokane in 1956 where he had been promised a job at Kaiser Aluminum.
He later took a bus driving job with Central Valley School District in 1957 and soon was working full time there.
Their fourth son (Ron) was born in 1958.
He retired from CV when he turned 62 in 1975 although he continued driving sports teams and for school field trips for at least 10 more years.
In his retirement years he and Olga enjoyed camping and fishing for weeks at a time with friends and relatives at regional lakes and rivers.
They traveled to such places as Washington, DC.
Disneyland, and Alaska.
In later years they enjoyed Bingo and family reunions in North Dakota and Colorado.
Olga, who took such wonderful care of him for 64 years passed away in December of 2009.
It wasn’t until 1995 that his many heroic
actions in those WWII battles were recognized.
At the U.S. Federal Building in Spokane, U.S.
Congressman George Nethercutt helped pinned
over a dozen awards and medals on his chest.
And as each of the Generals representing every branch of our military service saluted this rather short man, slight of build, standing just 5 feet 7 inches tall Harold, proudly raised his hand as he had for almost five years in the army proudly returning the salute.
Then Olga was handed a carefully folded flag that had been flown over the White House in his honor and in her eyes he was taller than all the Generals in the room.
And it was here that his children, grandchildren and great-grandson, heard about the extent of his heroism and that he had saved many lives on numerous occasions.
Harold is survived by his sisters, Dorothy Isgrig in Fargo, North Dakota, Ruby Pacskowski, Jamestown, North Dakota; his daughter, Jan Goodheart (JR DeVault)) of Clarkston and her children, Patricia Bakker (husband Pete, son Peter) of Lewiston, Idaho and son Bart Rambo of Clarkston, WA; sons, LaVerne, Bruce and Daryl of Spokane; son Ron and wife Pam, his daughter, Bryanne and her daughters Savannah and Sophia, and Pam’s daughters, Alicia, Amanda and Kira.
The family extends special appreciation to the staff at Good Samaritan Homes for the exceptional care provided for their dad over the past 10 months and the care and comfort provided by the Sacred Heart staff during his last days spent at the hospital.
Visitation will be Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012 from 4:00-8:00PM at Thornhill Valley Chapel, 1400 S. Pines Rd.
Spokane Valley, WA.
A Celebration of his Life will be held on Thursday, August 23rd, 2012 at Thornhill Valley Chapel at 1:00 PM.
Interment will follow with military honors at Pines Cemetery.