November 21, 2023

Linn County News

Published Nov. 22, 2023

Vernon Earl McGee, 78, resident of Wichita, Kan., passed away at St. Francis Via Christi Hospital on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. He was born at home in Goodrich, Kan., on Oct. 7, 1945, to Earl J. McGee and Jennie Irene (Adams) McGee.

Vernon graduated from Mound City High School in 1964. He then served four years in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. Vernon married Della Rickers and together they had two children. After they divorced he married Debbie Crum. Following their divorce he married Kathleen Stone on Feb. 1, 1992, in Wichita, Kan. 

He raised exotic birds and enjoyed flying remote and fuel controlled fighter planes. Vernon was a gun enthusiast and loved motorcycles. He worked at Coleman Company, Inc. in Wichita, and worked many years at Sears at Towne West Square. He was a published freelance photographer and loved taking pictures at the zoo. He had a lifelong love of spoiling and pampering his beloved cats.

Vernon is survived by one son, Richard McGee, and wife, Heather, Hutchinson, Kan.; two daughters, Charlotte McGee, Prescott, Ariz., and Deborah Fontaine, Denver, Colo. He also leaves behind eight grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; four sisters, Jean Weeks, and husband, Kenneth, of Abilene, Kan., Brenda Graves, of Vass, N.C., Candy Bergemann, Arma, Kan., and Jane Townsend, and husband Parry, of Redfield, Kan., and three brothers,  Wayne McGee and wife, Heather,  of Park City, Ill., Larry McGee of Nixa, Mo.,  and Gary McGee and wife, Barbara, of Fort Scott, Kan., and brother-in-law Marvin Bergemann; along with many nieces and nephews.

In accordance with Vernon’s request there will be no service celebrating his life.