Dad left this life Monday evening, Jan. 20, 2025, in Walla Walla, due to kidney failure as a complication of old age. He missed Mom Helen and just didn’t feel the need to go on any longer.
Carl Alva Batterton was born Oct. 15, 1930, at the old Grandma Morris home in Willow Gulch in Garfield County, Wash. He was the oldest of four children born to William Robert and Marye Hedwig (Pierre) Batterton.
Dad didn’t leave a biography for us to read, like Mom did, so we’re having to rely on our memories to write this memorial of his life. His parents lived in several places around the county until 1946 when they moved into the Batterton home place on Willow Gulch. He spent most of his life working in the family wheat fields and raising cattle. He told us that while many families struggled with rationing during the World War II times, the life on a farm was better than most as they were already used to providing for themselves and so didn’t notice the shortages that a lot of people dealt with.
He attended high school in Pomeroy where he played football; was manager of the boxing team; and belonged to Future Farmers of America. In his senior year he won the FFA Outstanding Individual Judge award and his judging team took first place out of 44 teams from Washington, Oregon and Idaho. He also met Helen Marie McManus. They dated until graduating in 1949; and they were married Oct. 15, 1949, in Pomeroy.
The work on a farm is hard and the days are long but he and Mom always found time to have fun, too. There were winter time gatherings to play board games and card games with the Tetricks, the Kollers and the Wolfs, among others. Sometimes the gatherings were to hold a chivaree for a newly wed couple. Other times, their county friends would get together and pool their resources just for the fun of it. Someone would bring the records, another the player, they’d take turns providing the home where they’d gather and enjoy life and their friendships.
Over the years he spoke of driving school bus for the Old Central Ferry School to supplement their income. He talked of driving cattle to auction and harvesting on precarious grounds. Riding horses was not his favorite thing and so, eventually, they purchased some small motorcycles to herd the cattle. He enjoyed hunting and they hosted friends from the Seattle area who wanted to hunt in their wheat fields. And then those same friends would take him out fishing on the ocean.
In 1961, he took a USAF Medical Unit training course; and in 1962 he completed a U.S. Army Explosive Ordinance course. Mom volunteered for the Civil Air Patrol Ground Support Group as a plane spotter and she and Dad both joined the many other patriotic Americans who watched our sky to protect us from possible invasion.
There were always lots of repairs needing to be done on a farm. He and son Mike took a small motors course. He and cousin Lloyd Morgan drove to Spokane to the community college for some electrician’s training. After they moved to Walla Walla, we heard stories about how “handy” his small motors knowledge was as Mom would come home to find him working on “repairing” her vacuum or the refrigerator. Dad knew a lot of things but he never pushed his knowledge on you. He’d just let you see if you could figure it out for yourself and wait until you asked; but he was always there if you did ask.
Dad Carl worked for his dad, Robert, for a long time. He eventually bought some of his own land and, in 1958, went into partnership with his dad. Robert had been operating the inherited Batterton land as co-owner with his siblings. When Grandpa Robert decided he was ready to retire, all the siblings agreed that they were going to sell the farm. Dad loved farming but the land he owned wasn’t enough to support them so, in 1977, he and Mom auctioned off their piece and moved to Colfax. He worked for awhile for McGregor Inc. then the USDA out of Pullman — winning several awards for his seed cleaning efforts while farming test plots for them. Dad was hooked … he said if he’d known farming could be an 8 to 5 job, he’d of sold out and gone to work for them years before.
He and Mom always enjoyed a good road trip so, after they retired and returned to Pomeroy, they bought an RV and eventually spent a lot of time in the Blues just hanging out in the mountains.
Dad loved his sweets. Mom swore he could smell them. She’d buy chocolate chips and hide them until she was ready to bake; only to find them gone because he’d “sniffed” them out. One hunting season he was staying in the RV with Mike and had gone to bed. Mike was watching TV and got a snack of peanut M&M’s from the cupboard; the next thing he knew … there was Dad at the top of the stairs asking “watcha doing?”
Well, he’s gone now, probably checking to see if she’s managed to hide more sweet treats for him to find.
Dad was predeceased by his wife, Helen; his three siblings Lois Jeanne Lewis, Della Diane Gosney and Robert Vernon Batterton. He is survived by his two sons — Mike (Vicki) Batterton, of Rathdrum, Idaho, and Larry (Sherri) Batterton, of Yakima; and his daughter Gwen (Steve) Ewing, of Caldwell; six grandkids; 16 great-grandkids; and two great-great-grandkids; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
