WICHITA
Charlie Ray Hankins, 88, retired KG&E plant operator and full-service auto mechanic to his ever-growing extended family, of Wichita, Kansas, went to join his parents and beloved sister Virginia on March the 3rd, the same date his mother passed in 1935. He left high school to enlist in the Navy in 1943 wherein he served proudly until 1946, participating in the D-Day Invasion of Normandy and shortly thereafter the occupation of Japan. After a stint as a farmer in his home state of Oklahoma, he returned to military service in the Air Force in 1948, eventually putting the many skills he had learned along the way to use for KG&E. He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Janice Louise Hankins, daughters Dawn (Doug) Davenport and Cathy (Jim) Loughridge, and sons Charles Robert Hankins and Steven (Janette) Hankins; also by seven grandchildren and ten great grandchildren so far. Charles Ray, or Charlie as everyone knew him, loved cars and knew them inside and out – he could date a movie the moment an automobile appeared in a street scene and as recently as last month he was changing brake pads on Chevy trucks and switching out air filters. Although his own formal education had been abridged by the onset of WWII, he was more than capable of teaching his children to read long before they ever arrived in a classroom with bedtime studies of Charles Dickens, Daniel Defoe and Robert Louis Stevenson. Charlie's numerous virtues can actually be summed up very easily: everyone could always count on him for anything, no matter what. He will be missed. Service 10:00 a.m., Monday, March 10 at the Calvary Baptist Church, Valley Center. Burial following the service at Prairie Lawn Cemetery, Peabody. Baker Funeral Home, Valley Center has charge. Condolences may be left for the family at bakerfhvc.com