Obituary examples for a husband

Vernon Earl Tolliver, 81, of Paducah, Kentucky, died July 27, 2026. He piloted towboats on the Ohio River for 40 years and called home every night he was out, even when it meant finding a pay phone at a lock at two in the morning. He is survived by Nadine, his wife of 58 years; his sons, Keith and Vernon Jr.; and six grandchildren. Visitation is Friday, July 31, from 4 to 8 pm at the funeral home.

My husband, Wilfredo “Willie” Rivera, died at home in Orlando on September 3, 2026, with me holding his hand. He was 62. We met at a cousin’s wedding in Ponce in 1995 and were married 29 years. Willie fixed air conditioners for a living, which in Florida made him a popular man on our street every August. He leaves me, our daughters, Marisol and Ivelisse, and his mother, Gladys. His funeral Mass is Thursday, September 10, at 10 am.

A funeral service for Gerrit Vander Molen, 74, of Holland, Michigan, will be held Saturday, October 24, 2026, at 11 am at Pine Creek Reformed Church. Gerrit died October 19 after a short illness. He grew tulips for the city’s festival for 30 springs and kept the church’s furnace running for most of them. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Wilma; his children, Peter and Anneke; and five grandchildren.

Lyle Everett Sorensen, 89, of Grand Island, Nebraska, died on August 20, 2026, at home, in the house he and his wife bought in 1962 for 14,000 dollars and never finished remodeling.

Lyle was born in 1937 in Dannebrog, Nebraska, to Anders and Ruth Sorensen. He played the trombone in the Grand Island High School band and came back after college to direct it, which he did for 33 years. His marching bands went to the state championships eleven times. Former students still stop his wife in the grocery store to tell her he was the first adult who took them seriously.

He met Marlys Jensen at a church youth dance in 1958, and they were married at Trinity Lutheran Church in 1960. For 66 years they did the dishes together every night, he washing and she drying, because he said she put things away wrong. They spent their summers driving to see their children and grandchildren and their winters in the same chairs by the same window, doing crosswords.

Lyle is survived by Marlys; his children, Karen (Todd) Lindgren, Eric Sorensen and Julie (Ben) Haas; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his brother, Arnold.

A funeral service will be held at 10:30 am on Wednesday, August 26, at Trinity Lutheran Church. The family asks that memorials go to the Grand Island High School band program, where they will buy instruments for students who can’t afford one.

Panagiotis “Pete” Stavrakis, 88, of Tarpon Springs, Florida, fell asleep in the Lord on April 30, 2026.

Pete was born in 1938 on the island of Kalymnos, Greece, and came to Tarpon Springs at 16 to dive for sponges with his uncle. He dove for nine years before opening a diner on Dodecanese Boulevard, which he ran with his wife for 41 years. He opened at 5:30 every morning except Easter and the day each of his children was born.

He married Sophia Kouvaris in 1964 in a church packed so full that guests stood in the street. Sophia ran the register and Pete ran the grill, and they argued in Greek about the specials board for four decades. He brought her coffee in bed every morning of their marriage, including the morning he went into the hospital.

He is survived by Sophia, his wife of 62 years; his sons, Nikolaos (Maria) and George (Stephanie) Stavrakis; his daughter, Despina (Chris) Pappas; eight grandchildren; and his sister, Kalliopi, in Kalymnos.

The Trisagion service will be held Monday, May 4, at 7 pm at the funeral home. The funeral service will be held Tuesday, May 5, at 11 am at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral. May his memory be eternal.

Sterling Aldous McRae, 79, of Macon, Georgia, died on June 6, 2026.

Sterling was born in 1947 in Dublin, Georgia, and spent 34 years as a lineman and then a supervisor for the power company. He married his first wife, Peggy Lowe, in 1969, and they raised two sons. After Peggy died in 2016, he said he had no plans to marry again.

He met Maxine Arrington in a grief support group at Riverside United Methodist Church in 2018. Her husband had died the year before. They were married there in 2019, with all six of their children standing up with them. In seven years they drove the full length of Route 66, took up ballroom dancing and joined each other’s Sunday school classes, which meant he went to church twice. He used to say that a second marriage at 72 left no time to waste on small fights.

Sterling is survived by Maxine; his sons, Wade (Tammy) McRae and Boyd McRae; Maxine’s children, Monica Hart, Trent Arrington, Naomi (Neil) Sutton and Jordan Arrington, who called him Pop; and eleven grandchildren between them. He was preceded in death by Peggy.

A service of death and resurrection will be held Thursday, June 11, at 2 pm at Riverside United Methodist Church.

Spencer Daniel Whitlock, 38, of Mesa, Arizona, died March 3, 2026, after 18 months with colon cancer.

I met Spencer in a statistics class at Arizona State in 2008. He had come home from a mission in Fortaleza, Brazil, the year before and still said “obrigado” to waiters. We were married in 2010. He worked as a civil engineer for the city of Mesa, designing the canal paths he later rode his bike on, and he coached our oldest son’s flag football team the fall he was diagnosed, sitting in a lawn chair on the sideline when he had to.

Spencer was the parent who made pancakes in the shape of each kid’s initial on Saturday mornings and the one who sang loudest in sacrament meeting. He was 38 years old and he did not get enough time. He knew that, and he spent the last year recording videos for our children to watch on their birthdays until they turn 18.

He is survived by me, his wife, Kenzie; our children, Jonah, 9, Ellie, 6, and Sam, 2; his parents, Daniel and Cheryl Whitlock; and his brothers, Tanner and Cole.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, March 7, at 11 am at the Red Mountain Ward chapel, with a viewing from 9:30 to 10:30 am. Interment will follow at Mesa City Cemetery. A fund for the children’s education has been set up through the funeral home.

Teodoro “Teo” Santangelo, 61, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, died on October 8, 2026.

Teo grew up in Bloomfield, the youngest of four, and for 25 years he ran a frame shop on Liberty Avenue where artists, grandmothers and the occasional nervous bride brought him things to frame. He could tell you within a quarter inch how wide a mat should be just by looking.

We met in 1999 at a Pirates game, where he spent nine innings explaining the infield fly rule to me. We were together 27 years and married in 2015, on the steps of the City-County Building, with his mother crying harder than either of us. We spent most Sundays at his sister’s house for dinner, and he never once let me bring store-bought dessert.

Teo is survived by me, Russell Bannister, his husband; his sisters, Carla Santangelo and Donna (Sal) Colella; his brother, Carmine; and nine nieces and nephews who all have something framed by him on their walls. He was preceded in death by his parents, Aldo and Rosa.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated Wednesday, October 14, at 10 am at Immaculate Conception Church in Bloomfield.

Leroy “Lee” Pfannenstiel, 80, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, died September 15, 2026. He spent 38 years as a machinist at the paper mill and the next 15 in the basement, talking on his ham radio to strangers in 140 countries. He could reach a man in New Zealand at three in the morning but could never find the ketchup in the refrigerator.

He leaves Jeanette, his wife of 57 years, who will now be able to park in the garage, where his antennas used to be; his daughters, Kris and Becky; and four grandchildren who learned Morse code before they learned cursive. His radio club will sign off for him on the air Saturday night. A funeral service will be held Monday, September 21, at 11 am. Wear green and gold.