Obituary: Hokom, Lennard
Age 91
He was born February 21st, 1922, in Ong, Nebraska.
Lennard was the youngest of six children.
He had one brother and four sisters, all of whom have preceded him in death.
His father, Henry, was a farmer who taught him how to plough a straight row behind oxen and he remembered his mother, Frieda, stuffing wet rags in the cracks in the windows to keep the dust out during the Dust Bowl.
He attended Ong High School with a graduating class consisting of himself and six girls.
The Hokom family relocated to Spokane Valley in 1940.
He was a founding member of Spokane Valley Methodist Church.
One night in July, his brother borrowed his car to go on a blind date with a nurse.
Lennard asked if he could tag along in hopes of meeting that special someone.
He met Ann Louise Burke, and he knew right away she was the one.
They married November 19th, 1941.
They were happily married 63 years until her death in 2005.
Lennard was drafted into the Army Air Corp in 1943 and was sent directly into combat where he joined the Thirteenth Air Division of the Eight Air Force 390th Squadron.
On January 13th, 1944, Lennard was the radar operator on a B-17 when it was shot down near Berlin.
He bailed out at 25,000 feet and was a POW until General Patton’s army rescued him.
Ann joined the Army Nurses Corp when Lennard was reported missing in action.
Lennard and Ann began their life together in the Spokane Valley.
They had their only child, Dianne Jean, on December 26, 1946.
Lennard worked construction for forty years, starting out as a laborer and ending up a superintendent.
Ann was Head Nurse of Newborn Nursery for 25 years at Deaconess Hospital.
Upon retirement, Lennard and Ann enjoyed travelling and spent nineteen years in Arizona during the winter.
Rest in peace with Mom.
Love you Dad.