OSWEGO, NY – Henry “Hank” Broadwell, 95, of Oswego, NY, passed away quietly in his sleep on Monday July 13, 2015, at St. Luke Health Facility.
Born in Fulton, NY, at Stop 28, July 28, 1919, he was raised in Geneva/Waterloo, NY.
Hank was the son of the late Arthur Henry Broadwell and Helen Smith Broadwell.
He resided at 291 W. Second St., with his wife of 68 years, Betty Jane (Graves) Broadwell.
Hank worked the family farm after leaving elementary school in sixth grade.
He entered the Civil Conservation Corp at age 17 helping the build Boise, Idaho State Park, Fair Haven State Park and Booneville, NY Park.
Choosing to serve his country, he enlisted in the United States Navy reserves in 1939 and in 1940 the United States Navy.
Hank was a Seaman 1st class aboard the USS Chemung (oil tanker) and aboard the USS Baltimore (a heavy cruiser).
Hank served in the Atlantic, Pacific, Iwo Jima, Mariana Islands etc.
He received several medals while on duty, and afterwards, from his granddaughter-in-law in the US Air Force, Brittany Zeigler.
Hank was honorably discharged on Sept. 17, 1945.
He began working at Dilts Machine Shop.
Then, he and five men began the Boilermakers Union in Fulton in 1950, which Hank was a part of until 1978 when he retired.
However, Hank worked many jobs of which he worked at for short periods of time.
Armstrong Plant, Diamond Match, Shady Cloth Factory, Sealwright, GE, Nine Mile, FitzPatrick and the steam plant units 5 and 6.
He even spent a time traveling house to house shoveling horse manure to would be buyers.
Hank was an avid outdoorsman.
He enjoyed camping, fishing for perch and bullhead, carpentry work, remodeling his home and tinkering, fixing anything and anyone brought to him, also in his late 80s making birdhouses for his family and friends.
He loved to take Sunday drives on his motorcycle, cars, pickup trucks, moped, or hover round scooter.
But, his greatest love, that he was well known for, was traveling in his motorhome with his wife, Betty, across the country visiting his children and family.
He lived through the creation of Social Security, horse drawn carriages to the first Ford automobile, from television to the internet, from a switchboard, party line phones to cellphones, from horse drawn delivered mail to flying mail around the world in planes, the space shuttle to the moon and to the discovery of new planets.
On 9-11-2001, he was 82 years old and wished to re-enlist to fight for his country again.
He was honored and inducted in the US Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. and has his name on a memorial stone along west side of the Oswego River for serving.
Surviving are his wife of 68 years, Betty; his two daughters, Shelly Maxine (Kirt) Earhardt of Orlando, Fla., and Jolene Allison (William) Zeigler of Orchard Park, NY; a son, Pastor Duane (Sandy) Broadwell of Friendship, NY; grandchildren, Remy Henry Bitton, Kenneth (Brittany) Zeigler of Pine Bush, Kristopher, Kody, Noah and Alexie, all of Orchard Park, Duane Broadwell II, Dawn (Ronald) DuBois, both of Friendship; great-grandchildren, Ashley and Jesse Borden of Washington, DC, Kirstyn DuBois of Friendship, Amanda, Myranda and Duane Broadwell III; great-great-grandchildren Alexis, Taylor Kay and Luke and Faye.
Calling hours will be held 1-3 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Thursday at the Nelson Funeral Home.
Funeral services will be held 1 p.m. Friday, with a calling period 12:30 – 1 p.m. prior to the service at the funeral home, 11 W. Albany St.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the family at 291 W. Second St., Oswego, NY 13126.
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God Bless you, Uncle Hank….now you can be with my Dad, your brother Jim(Carlton) and the rest of his brothers and sisters, and rest of the family…..I know you will be missed by Aunt Betty and your loving family.
Sincerely, Lucille Broadwell
We will miss you very much. Your humor was loved by all. We look back to our 50th anniversary party and the wonderful pictures of the fun we all had. We will always be able to remember the times you would visit in your motor home and how much we enjoyed those visits.