Travis Funeral Chapel

Wilber Clem Flickinger, age 93 of La Plata, Missouri, passed away Tuesday, August 20, 2019 at the Macon Healthcare Center after a brief hospitalization. Known as Clem before he was drafted into the Navy during his senior year and as Wilber thereafter, he was born in Marceline, Missouri on June 3, 1926 to parents Lewis Clem Flickinger and Pearl Lucille Brammer Flickinger. He served during World War II in the Pacific on LSMs 299, 311, and 184, as well as in occupied Japan, and returned to finish high school on the GI Bill. His initial class would have graduated in 1945; he graduated from the Marceline High School in 1947.

Wilber began working for the Santa Fe Railroad in summers between high school sessions and returned to work there after his honorable discharge from military service. He began with the gang and soon bid into the bridge and paint gang. He worked in Kansas, Chicago, and up and down the line from Kansas City to Fort Madison.

Wilber married his wife of almost 65 years, Mary Dean (Sallee) Flickinger, on September 23, 1951 in Eversonville, Missouri. Shortly thereafter, to be at home more with his family, Wilber began working for Standard Oil Company in Carrollton, Missouri and then in Freeman, Missouri, and finally settled in La Plata, Missouri in 1955. He retired from Amoco Pipeline in 1989.

Wilber was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Dean, in 2016; and by his parents, an infant sister, Edith; son-in-law Kurt Brown; grandson Zack Brown; a sister-in-law, Shirley Mays; and brothers-in-law George Edmundson, Art Mays, Charles Slaughter, and Marvin Bevins.

Surviving are six children, Debra Flickinger and Bob Houlihan, Dean (Paulette) Flickinger, Dena (Les) True, David (Sheila) Flickinger, Denise (Art) Crutchfield, and Donna (Jeff) Wyatt; grandchildren Pam Wheeler, J.R. (Lindsey) Adams, Brandy Adams and Vince Carson; Gage Flickinger, Chayton True, Amanda (Joe) Smith, Nathan (Mindy) Flickinger, Nicole (Brandon) Beddoe, Seth Brown, Jace Brown, Martina (Randy) Miller, Hannah (Andrew) Richards, and Jake Wyatt; great grandchildren Oakley and EvaBella Flickinger, Savannah Beddoe, Michael, Kaden, and Ava Adams, Dena Marie and Jasmine Ault, Gemma and Max Miller, and Braden and Drew Richards; two sisters, Pauline Slaughter and Beverly Berry; a sister-in-law, Beverly Edmundson; brother-in-law, Lonnie (Carole) Sallee; and several nieces and nephews that he enjoyed enormously.

Wilber was a member of the American Legion, Moose Lodge, and LSM Association.

Funeral services will be held at Travis Funeral Chapel in La Plata on Friday, August 23, 2019 at 12:00 p.m., with Pastor Scott Dalrymple officiating. Interment, with Military Honors, will be held 2:00 p.m. at the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery in Jacksonville, Missouri.

Visitation will be held at Travis Funeral Chapel on Thursday, August 22, 2019 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Memorials in memory of Wilber may be made to Meals on Wheels or La Plata Nursing Home. Contributions may be left at or mailed to Travis Funeral Chapel, 125 S. Church St., La Plata, MO 63549.