Jackson E. Winchester

Jackson E. Winchester, 77, of La Salle, formerly of Ottawa, died Friday, November 17, 2006, at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Gladfelter Funeral Home with the eulogy by his grandson Tony Gruenwald. Burial will be in Ottawa Avenue Cemetery with full military honors. Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday. Mr. Winchester was born October 4, 1929, in Deer Park Township, to Luther Lincoln and Alice Beulah (Morlan) Winchester. He married Rita Margaret Newkirk on April 12, 1952, in Utica. She died April 1, 1990. He served in the National Guard prior to the Korean Conflict and was in the U. S. Army during the Korean Conflict receiving the Purple Heart. He was a member of the La Salle Veterans of Foreign Wars. He retired from the Local Union No. 150 Midwest Operating Engineers in 1992. He is survived by two daughters, Brenda (Steve) Rogers of Conyers, Georiga and Karen (Richard) Gruenwald of La Salle; two sons, John (Nona) of Forreston, Ill. and Paul (Gina) of Ottawa; nine grandchildren; seven sisters, Naoma Harcharik, Darlene (William) Wilson, Delores Eiben, Alice Maltas, Maxine Super, Joyce Allen and Judy (Robert) McLaughlin all of Ottawa; a brother, Carl (Karen) of Ottawa. His parents; two sisters, Ruth Evelyn Schafer and June Diane Hicks; and three brothers, Ronald Lee, Harold James and Leo Eldon Winchester, preceded him in death. Pallbearers will be his grandchildren, Stephanie and Vickie Rogers, Tony, Amanda, Jacklynn and Johnathon Gruenwald, and Carley, Andrew and Megan Winchester. Memorials may be directed to the family.