Prentis R. 'Moose' Hanners

Pren­tis R. ‘Moose’ Han­ners, age 65, of Mount Gilead, died peace­fully Sun­day evening, Octo­ber 21, 2012, at his home sur­rounded by his lov­ing fam­ily fol­low­ing a coura­geous two and a half year bat­tle with cancer.

On July 18, 1947, Pren­tis was born at home in Del­bar­ton, West Vir­ginia, the old­est and only son of five chil­dren of Mevria (Hodge) Han­ners and the late Ralph Hanners.

Hav­ing some­one older sign him up for his draft card at 14 years old, Pren­tis was drafted shortly there­after to serve in the U.S. Army. He served his first tour of duty in Korea, and re-enlisted to serve in the Viet­nam War. He served as a heavy equip­ment oper­a­tor, truck dri­ver and chauffeur.

Dur­ing his time in the ser­vice, Pren­tis earned the nick­name „Moose‰ and also earned his G.E.D. Upon his hon­or­able dis­charge, he went back to school earn­ing an associate‚s degree from Cuya­hoga Falls Indus­trial Tech­nol­ogy School.

After mov­ing to Mor­row County in 1975, Moose began work­ing at Sun Ray Stoves in Delaware, where he worked for 18 years. He then found a pro­fes­sion he loved, dri­ving truck. He drove truck for Sny­der Nation­als, Mans­field Express, and most recently for Triple Crown Truck­ing. He loved to see all the dif­fer­ent sites every day, but he always made sure he came home every night to his wife and family.

Get­ting a sec­ond chance at love, Moose was intro­duced by mutual friends to Mary Jane Abra­ham Tobin at the V.F.W. in Mount Gilead. Not long after meet­ing, Moose and Mary Jane eloped to Pigeon Forge, Ten­nessee, on May 22, 1991. They have cher­ished their 21 years together.

An avid camper, Moose tried to get away every week­end he could in his fifth wheel camper with his fam­ily, and always meet­ing up with sev­eral groups of his friends. His favorite camp­grounds were in Delaware, where he espe­cially enjoyed fishing.

Always ‘look­ing for trea­sur­ers’, Moose loved going to flea mar­kets and auc­tions in search of a good buy, and it was hard for him to pass up a good deal!

Well known for always speak­ing his mind and for his hag­gling, Moose also had his own spe­cial way of show­ing you that he cared for you.

Moose was a mem­ber of the V.F.W. Post 8054 and was a life mem­ber of the AmVets.

Moose will be dearly missed by his wife, Mary Jane Han­ners of Mount Gilead; his daugh­ter, Candi Lynn (Mark Kuhn) Han­ners of Marengo; a grand­daugh­ter, Bai­ley Lynn Parker; his mother, Mevria Han­ners of Ful­ton; four step-children: Den­nis (Deb­bie) Tobin of Mar­ion, Larry (Kel­lie) Tobin of Edi­son, Vicky (Kenny) Head of Mesa, Ari­zona, and Dale Tobin of Mar­ion; numer­ous step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren; a sis­ter, Debby Lowe of Colum­bus; and numer­ous nieces and nephews.

Includ­ing his par­ents, Moose was pre­ceded in death by three sis­ters: Mary Jane Han­ners, Donna Faye Can­ter­bury, and Kathy Sue Saddler.

His fam­ily will greet friends from 2 — 3 p.m. on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 27, 2012, at the Sny­der Funeral Home, Craven Chapel, 67 N. Main St., Mount Gilead. Ser­vices pay­ing trib­ute to his life will fol­low at 3:00 p.m., with his cousin-in-law, Elder Bill Smith offi­ci­at­ing. Mil­i­tary hon­ors pro­vided by the V.F.W. Post 8054 and AmVets Post 87, with the assis­tance of his grand­chil­dren, will be held at the begin­ning of his services.

Moose and his fam­ily would like to extend a heart­felt ‘thank you’ to every­one with Hos­pice of Mor­row County for their won­der­ful care of Moose and to the Mor­row County Vet­er­ans Ser­vices Office for doing all they could for him.

Memo­r­ial con­tri­bu­tions may be made in care of Hos­pice of Mor­row County, 228 South Street, Mount Gilead, Ohio 43338.

Sny­der Funeral Homes of Mount Gilead is hon­ored to have been cho­sen to serve Moose‚s fam­ily and your pri­vate con­do­lences may be expressed to them online by vis­it­ing www.snyderfuneralhomes.com.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Oct 22 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.