Herbert Leon Butler was born in Sutton, WV on October 28, 1934 and passed away on January 11, 2022 in Lakeway, Texas. He was the 6th child of a large family of 4 boys: Keith, Ken, Herb and Kyle and 4 girls: Kay, Mary, Wanda and Barbara.

As a young boy, the family lived near Spring Ridge, WV, 8 miles farther back in the woods from Erbakan, a very poor part of Appalachia. They had no electricity, running water or indoor plumbing, but plenty of woods nearby for a boy to explore and play in. When he was in the 3rd grade, they moved to property owned by the Cherry River Boom & Lumber Company, across the river from La Frank, WV.

Once a year, along with their neighbors, they waded across the Cherry River where they would meet at Clayton Clay Coe’s grocery store and pay their rent for the entire year. For most residents it was the only time they would visit with their neighbors.

His father, John Clayton, was a logger, sharpened large saws, axes, hoes and picks, cut & fell trees and worked as a coal miner. His mother, Ruhama was a wife, and mother of 8 living children and kept house, cooked, made all their clothes on an old treadle sewing machine, and generally was the disciplinarian, and made sure everything went smoothly.

When Herb was a junior in high school the family moved from La Frank to Kent, Ohio. The entire bed of a 5-ton truck was covered with canning jars and containers of 400 gallons of canned meat, fruit, vegetables, juices, jellies and jams, along with dried apples and beans.

In the summer of 1952, he attended boot camp at the Naval air station in Grosse Isle, MI and attended the Junior/Senior prom in his Navy uniform because there was an admiral’s inspection that night much to Mary’s delight.

He graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1953, and married Mary Louise McMullen in September of that year. He volunteered his draft to the Navy in December 1955 and on January 24 he reported to the Navy draft office in Philadelphia where he boarded the USS Bennington. They sailed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on a shakedown cruise. When the opportunity came, he applied for duty on the USS Forrestall.

Herb was an Aviation Metalsmith, which included cars and airplanes assigned to the ship. In Lisbon, Portugal he was charged with getting the mail, providing transportation and maintaining planes for pilots who were assigned to the ship’s company. He was temporarily assigned to the Blue Angels when their Aviation Metalsmith had emergency surgery. He was honorably discharged and returned to his family in Kent, OH.

Having been laid off by Allen Aircraft and exhausted all his unemployment checks, he did volunteer work at the Lutheran Church and as a result received an offer from Shell Oil Company to manage a station that held the world record for gasoline volume at that time, in Kettering. That assignment led to Dealer Salesman, Salary Car Wash manager, and Training Instructor assignments.

He retired in 1989 and moved to Lakeway, TX in 1999 to a life of retirement, golf and fishing.

Herb was the loving husband of Sue of 47 years, and father of three children: Peggy Louise Butler Novak (Chris), Timothy Leon Butler (Betty) and Jeffrey Lynn Butler (Susan). He had 5 grandchildren: Jason Boatwright (Natalie), Jackie Clepper (Cody), Jesse Butler (Kimberly), Rachel Butler, and Abbie Butler Phelps (Robert), and 6 great grandchildren Cody Lane Clepper, Mason Leon Boatwright, Hudson Dwight Boatwright, Kiersten Alena Boatwright, Avaleigh Butler, Maddie Deane Clepper.

His first wife, Mary, mother of his children, was killed in an automobile accident in 1973.