Wallace W. White's Obituary
Wallace W White, Sr., 96,of Mt. Dora, FL, passed away Monday, September 22, 2014 after falling and suffering a stroke.
"Wally" was born July 18, 1918 in Chicago, IL to John and Mae White, the third born son of 6 boys and one girl. Later the family moved from Chicago to Melbourne, FL where he spent his teenage years. Before the war, Wally's dad held evangelistic meetings and each of the boys played different instruments; Wally played the piano.
It was in Orlando that he met Virginia Powell and through much correspondence they fell in love and married in 1940 and had two boys, Bill and Charles.
Wally was ordained by the Charlotte Bible Institute in1940. He was a church planter in Alabama and Assistant Pastor of the Tampa Gospel Tabernacle before he resigned to join YOUTH FOR CHRIST, INTNL. ( part of the Billy Graham Association) to head up the Southern Region of the USA and later Central and South America. Because of Wally's love for the camera and filiming, he was able to capture so much of his travels on film. In 1949 Wally traveled for three months to 11 countries in S.A. At other times he travelled to Europe. It was during this trip that Wally met Nate Saint (one of the five missionaries speared in Ecuador), and Nate flew Wally to different areas of the jungle to minister to the Indians. Sixty years later he would revisit the same area in Shell Mara, Ecuador with Nate Saint's son, Steve and his family, and with Wally's granddaughter and great-granddaughter and other family members. He treasured the time spent on this trip and continued to promote Steve Saint's ministry, I -TEC a non-profit organization that assists and promotes self-sustenance and develops innovative dentistry equipment and medical support, and flying equipment. ITEC became Wally's passion!
After YOUTH FOR CHRIST, Wally and the family moved back to Chicago where he pastored for 10 years at THE CHICAGO TABERNACLE, also known as "The Missionary and Evangelistic Center of the Midwest". Wally also launched and hosted Chicago's first Christian television program called "THE ANSWER" in the 1950's.
The mid 60's began a new phase of Wally's life in the insurance business in Chicago and San Francisco which was very successful. Moving to Stuart, FL they lived for 10 years and then back to Orlando where Ginny died after a lengthy illness.
Once again Wally pursued a new love, he was vice president of sales for Connell Farms a plant nursery farm in Apopka, FL, and met a new love, Georgeanne. They married 18 months later
and another adventure began! Wally always had a knack for creating impressive landscape designs even into his 90's and now with his wife and new family, he was able to design the landscape at their home in Mt. Dora. He and Georgeanne were married for 26 years.
Mr. White is survived by his wife, Georgeanne, two granddaughters, Shannon Hammond and Alicia Collins, Son, Chuck White, 5 step children, and 6 grandchildren and numerous step grandchildren who affectionately refer to him as "Poppy". There will be no funeral service; however, there will be a private memorial in Wally's memory with the date, time and location to be noted in a later post. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to ITEC, Itec 10575 SW 147th Circle, Dunnellon, Fl 34432, 352-465-4545, [email protected], which is what Wally was most proud of despite all of his accomplishments in life.
For the past 13 years Wally and Georgeanne have been next door neighbors to Georgeanne’s daughter Dottie Healy, Dottie’s daughter and their granddaughter Leah Germain, and for the past five years Dottie’s husband Chris Healy . They were a constant presence in Georgeanne and Wally’s life, and not many a day has gone by when they weren’t all together enjoying the evening sunsets or sharing a meal. Wally always enjoyed these get togethers immensely.
Wally/ aka /Poppy will be so missed because he was so loved!
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