Daniel S. Harding

Gering, NE

1939, 762, Custer, F-12 (Doran), Doran Echoes Reporter

Daniel S. Harding died Friday January 7, 1997 of injuries sustained in an auto accident at Kamiah.

He was born Dec. 3, 1916, to William Henry and Bessie Laura Cole Harding at Gering, Neb. He worked in the beet fields, drilled wells and was a grain and gravel scooper in Scottsbluff, Neb., as a child. He graduated from high school at Gering in 1936. He received a football scholarship to Eastern State College at Madison, S.D., attending in 1940 and 1941.

After high school, he was a stone mason for the Civilian Conservation Corps at Harney Peak in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

During World War II he trained at Camp Claiborne, La., with Company A of the 109th Engineers. He was sent to Northern Ireland, spending 10 months there. He then went to North Africa via Liverpool, England.

He saw action in North Africa and Salerno, Italy. He received the Purple Heart and contracted malaria in Tunisia. He was appointed sergeant June 25, 1942, and was also with the South Dakota National Guard, 34th Division.

He married Milan Sredanovich Aug. 3, 1941, at Gering. The couple later divorced.

After the war, he drove a delivery truck for Safeway at Seattle.

He later moved to the Kamiah area and bought a logging truck. He hauled to the mills on the Glenwood. He worked for the Twin Feathers Unit of Potlatch Corp. at Kamiah, retiring after 30 years as a mechanic.

He married Carol Ann Bird Aug. 9, 1975, at Lewiston. The marriage ended in divorce, but they still made their home together.

While employed by Potlatch Corp., he was union president of the local AFL-CIO and the International Woodworkers Association. He was a member of the VFW Kamiah Lyons-Dahl Post No. 5407 and the American Legion. He joined the Grange in 1954 as a tree farmer.

He spent many hours of service helping alcoholics and was known as "Dancing Dan" at AA functions.

He was an avid hunter, and he shot his last deer at the age of 79. He enjoyed fishing, gem cutting, flowers and gardening, boxing and sports events. He liked to scuba dive in the Clearwater River and horseback riding. He also enjoyed watching his grandchildren grow up.

He is survived by three sons, Danial cq A. (Pete) and Manuel K. (Kim) Harding, both of Clarkston, and Ronald J. (Jo) Harding of Kamiah; a daughter, Betsy R. Walker of Kamiah; 11 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Preceding him in death were two brothers, one sister, and a great-granddaughter.

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