My father has passed away. I am using my space to honor him.
George Oliver Ainger
January 16, 1942 – September 10, 2021
Family Man. Farmer. Community Supporter. Friend.
George Ainger of Harvard, IL, was taken from this world too
soon. Parkinson’s Disease and other health issues combined to rob him of
enjoyable senior years and to rob us of a loving father, brother, uncle and
grandpa.
He was born on January 16, 1942, as America was mobilizing
to fight World War II, to Gladys and Alan Ainger in Woodstock, IL. He was their
first child, with three more to come: sisters Nancy and Mary and brother David.
The four siblings remained close their entire lives.
Alan was a farmer in the Greenwood area north of Woodstock. When George was 4, Alan
with his father Oliver bought a 100-year-old farm on the Illinois-Wisconsin
state line near Alden, IL. When the family moved, George rode in the back seat
of the car with his dog in his lap. Alan and Gladys settled their young family
into the farmhouse and began milking cows. Little George christened the new
homestead with a naked romp on the front lawn, much to the neighbors’
amusement. This moment would be recalled in his adult years when adult George
memorably did a naked rain dance during a drought (thankfully, this time in the
back yard). Young George also got in trouble for playing cowboy with Nancy and
tying her to a tree.
On Sundays, the family would go for regular drives around
the neighborhood to check the crops – their own plus the neighbors’ – a custom
he continued as an adult. These drives would pay off many decades later, when
George was called as an expert witness in a property dispute. His memory was
excellent: he knew every tree, every fence line, every field.
As George got older, he began helping around the farm and
joined the Alden Speeds 4-H Club where his projects included dairy and rabbits.
George was the first in a long line of Aingers to join 4-H. Through George, his
siblings Nancy and David,
George’s children Sharon and Dennis, David’s son Alan, and Alan’s children
Kyle, Jake and Ava, the Ainger family has shown dairy at the McHenry County
Fair from 1952 through
present day.
George’s favorite cow was a beautiful Holstein named Burke,
and he even had the thrill of taking her once to the Illinois State Fair. But, once was enough as he thought the long
trip was too hard on his animal. He cried when Burke grew too old and had to be
shipped. After his 20s he stopped showing his animals but helped his children with
their own 4-H projects: dairy, hogs and even sheep. George personally returned
to the show ring one more time in the 1990s, at the Walworth County Fair with
another beautiful Holstein named
7-Up.
As a teenager, George played cornet in the Alden-Hebron High School band and sang tenor in the choruses plus sang solos at music contests. The school’s bands and choruses were on a bus trip to a music contest in Champaign when 15-year-old George decided to get the attention of a pretty 14-year-old brunette freshman. He borrowed a bass drum mallet and bonked her on the head. That was the beginning of an almost 60-year relationship with the girl who became his wife, Kathy.
George
graduated high school in 1960, and Kathy in 1961. She had taken one semester of
college before George swept in with an engagement ring. After Kathy finished
her first year of college, they wed in October 1962. The newlyweds moved into a
new little house on the farm that George, Kathy, Alan and Gladys helped to
build. The big farm collie Tina slept in the bathtub in the yard while they
worked that summer to finish the house before the wedding. They were married
for 50 years and 9 days before divorcing in 2015.
Children came along, and George delighted in being a father.
First came a daughter, Sharon; followed two years later by Dennis; and then Linda 15 months later. When
George and Kathy brought new baby Sharon home from Harvard Hospital, he
insisted that Kathy sit in the front seat with Sharon in the crook of her right arm so he could see the baby’s
face.
George was always laughing and teasing with his children,
and many lunch-times would turn into games of monkey pile, tickles, and
snickey-licks. He would watch cartoons with them (Underdog being a great favorite). It didn’t take much encouragement
before his inner big-kid came out to play. On one occasion, he and Kathy’s
uncle Ronnie got into a legendary fly swatter battle that raged throughout the
house as his children cheered.
George had a long history of community involvement, but he
never drew attention to it. He simply and quietly amassed an impressive resume
of volunteer service and leadership. His
family can never remember a time when he wasn’t involved with something. His
participation started right out of high school, when he joined the National
Guard. Unfortunately, he was needed more on the farm and did not get to serve.
As a young adult, he volunteered with the Alden Fire Department. His daughter remembers
seeing his fireman’s coat, boots and helmet hanging in the garage, and going to
see him fight a barn fire. A small scar on his chest near his neck marked where
he was burned during a fire.
His activities included
- Loyal Order of the Moose – 50-year member
- McHenry County Fair Board – director, vice president, dairy superintendent and assistant livestock auction coordinator; awarded lifetime membership for his service
- Hebron Helping Hands 4-H Club – volunteer leader 10+ years
- Association of Milk Producers Inc. (AMPI) – district president
- Woodstock Progressives – director and secretary/treasurer
- Alden Township – trustee
- McHenry County Cooperative Extension – director
- Farm Bureau
- Alden-Hebron School Board
- Pure Milk Association
Most people never knew that George was actually an
introvert. He needed his quiet time at home behind his newspapers. He
especially cherished the peace found out in the fields on a tractor, where he
drank in the beautiful of the wildflowers and enjoyed seeing the occasional
deer bouncing across his path. As he got older and the kids were grown,
lunch-time was naptime on his favorite sofa in the living room. But, with
batteries recharged, he loved spending time with family and friends and
cheering on his children at school events.
He could turn a roomful of strangers into friends. He had a
special gift for chatting and striking up a conversation with almost anyone.
Family members knew to allow extra time at any restaurant: it was inevitable
that either someone would stop by their table to visit or George would spot
someone across the room and head over to sit at theirs.
He was a regular at the daily morning coffee and
conversation get-togethers with other farmers at the Kozy Nook in Harvard. He
also loved fish fries at the Harvard Moose Club and the Coffee Cup Café in Sharon, WI; and stopping
in for his soup at Sammy's on the Square in Walworth, where they considered him
a member of the family. The Big Foot Inn
was another favorite, and when he was younger he danced a mean Circle 2 Step at
the Moose nearly every Saturday night.
George had a talent for farming and especially for working
with animals. His dream had been to become a veterinarian, and he would have
been an excellent one. Because of his skill and knowledge with animals, area
vets trusted him to administer medications for them. As his children reached
drinking age, he had an unusual request – he asked them to save their empty
champagne bottles because the bottles’ necks were the perfect length and shape
for getting dosages down cow’s necks. His daughter even remembers him
performing emergency surgery on a downed cow that saved its life.
George did love baseball and his Chicago Cubs, and as a
teenager took his grandfather to Wrigley Field every year. He sneakily
indoctrinated his daughter in Cubs fandom one summer when she was bedridden: in
the days before TVs had remote controls, he brought a new color TV into her
bedroom, turned on the Cubs game and left the room. As Daughter was not allowed out of bed, she
was stuck watching the game. He came back the 7th inning a very
pleased fan.
George eventually got to take his daughter to Wrigley Field,
and he tolerated her later conversion to the Milwaukee Brewers. She paid him
back when her husband’s company invited him to attend a Brewers game in its
company suite. He also got to throw out the first pitch at a Beloit Snappers
minor league game; his game ball was enshrined in an oak display case in his TV
room.
Life didn’t allow for many hobbies. He played in a bowling
league for many years, and dabbled in golf. In later years, George enjoyed
driving his antique Farmall tractor or white 1960 Chevy Impala in the Village
of Sharon 4th of July parade with the family tractor posse. Family
legend has it that their 1941 Farmall H Power Packer was the last tractor off
the factory line when World War II began, before George was born. He judged the
Milk Day tractor show for many years.
He had a way of surprising his family. With summer the
busiest farming season, it was rare that he could take any time away. Yet one
August morning he ran into the house to tell Kathy to start packing right now
because they were taking the kids to Disney World.
Another time at Harvard Milk Days, he spontaneously decided that his kids needed a pony. His daughter remembers sitting a bench next to the pony rides and looking up at the dark sky wondering why his conversation with the operator was taking so long. She found out the next day when George drove off in the farm pick-up truck and came back with a Shetland pony named Twinkles riding in the truck bed. But, the pony turned the tables: when George dropped the truck’s tailgate, Twinkles had surprised him by hopping into the truck bed all by itself.
Parkinson’s is a cruel disease that sneaks up on a person slowly. George coped with one change after another until Parkinson’s took away his ability to live independently. Yet through it all he always had a hearty desire to see and visit with family and friends, with his ever-trusty cell phone close at hand.
Eventually George had to move into the Harvard Mercy Care
Center, where he lived his final 2 ½ years. As was his way he charmed the staff,
who considered him “their farmer.” He shared a room with a gentleman named
Robert. George’s daughter hung an oversized canvas print of Wrigley Field’s green grass on the wall so he could picture himself once again sitting in those stands.
Family and friends were constant visitors, and occasionally
took him for car rides so he could check out the crops. Every month his
daughter would bring carry-out from Sammy’s or Kelley’s in Harvard, and
together in his room they shared a lunch of his favorite chopped steak.
When the COVID pandemic took hold and the safety lockdowns put in place, the lunches had to end but we learned how to visit through the windows. At first, the staff would push his wheelchair to a screened window through which we could talk in person. Eventually, Dad would stay sitting in his recliner that faced his room window. Outside, we would stand very closely to the glass so he could see us clearly (thank goodness he lived on the ground floor). We’d talk over the phone while looking at each other. After a year, thank God the home reopened to in-person visits. Once again we could touch, hug and give him a kiss.
We laid Dad to rest on a beautiful late summer day in
September. It was the kind of harvest day that a farmer dreams of: blue
skies, no clouds, comfortably warm temps and the gentlest of breezes. After the
service at the cemetery on the country hillside, a lone praying mantis flitted
up to keep George company.
George is survived by
His daughter Sharon and son-in-law Jon; son Dennis and
daughter-in-law Catherine; and daughter Linda and son-in-law Tom.
Dennis and Catherine’s children Elizabeth, Andrew, Leo and
Grace, who never got to know their grandfather.
Linda’s daughter Tori with her first husband Bill, and Linda
and Tom’s son Josh.
His former wife Kathy, who loved him for 54 years.
His sister Nancy and almost-brother-in-law Doc, and his
brother David and sister-in-law Carol.
His nieces and nephews: Caryl (Tim), Barb (Dwight), Craig
(Trina), Diane, Karen, Kevin (Angie), Kristin (Wesley), Alan (Katie) and Alex.
Great-nieces and nephews: Allie (Scott), Matt (Casey),
Peter, Joe, Sam, Grace, Collin, Kendall, Sophie, Holly, Brody, Clay, Michael,
Maya, Kyle, Jake, and Ava. George had the pleasure of living next door to Kyle,
Jake and Ava, and watching them grow up. He loved them all very much.
His cousins Ken (Mary) and their son Joe, and Steve (Julie)
and their sons Sam and Alec.
All of the people whom George considered friends and
neighbors. If you hadn’t met yet, George still considered you a friend, too.
Reuniting with him in heaven are his mother Gladys; father
Alan, sister Mary; brother in-law Mike; uncle Elbert; great-grandfather Oliver,
who helped teach a young boy how to farm and cheer for the Cubs; and the
hundreds of dogs, cats and other animals that George loved.
