William E. Yantzi was born May 26, 1928, in O’Neill, NE, to Levi E. and Kathryn (Maring) Yantzi.
He passed away January 12, 2024, at his home at Prairie Pines. Funeral service will be January 20, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. at St Patrick’s Catholic Church.
As a young boy living in O’Neill, he loved visiting his grandparents on the farm, riding horses, and hunting. His grandmother would always cook his game for him. Growing up in the hard 30’s, Bill said he needed to work to get some change in his pockets, after school while in the eighth grade, he delivered magazines on Saturday. He also worked at the Corkle Hatchery and feed store after school and on Saturdays. When in high school, he worked evenings at the Golden Hotel, as a bellboy, and ran a shoe shine stand there and cleaned the barber shop. During the summers, he worked in an ice plant pulling ice from brine tanks and filling them again to make more ice. After graduating from high school in 1947, he drove truck for his brothers one year. He then hired out to Northwestern Bell Telephone Company on March 22, 1948, as a lineman on their construction crew in O’Neill, and later he transferred to Sidney, Nebr. In 1949, Bill married his high school sweetheart, and the love of his life, Darlene Goeke. He worked in Sidney installing underground telephone cable, and as a lineman on toll lines, working there until 1951. Bill then transferred to the maintenance department in Chadron, NE, and moved to Chadron with his wife and his daughter, Peggy Lee. Steve joined the family in 1952. Bill worked in the Chadron telephone office as a switchman. After attending several company schools, he worked as Northwestern Bell’s central office switchman, and toll technician. He maintained central office dial equipment and in later years, he worked on micro wave radio and fiber optic service. Bill continued working there until retiring in 1990 with 43 years of service with the company. He was knowledgeable in electronics, and after retirement, he willingly helped people with telephones, televisions, and computer problems, never accepting any pay for his assistance. He and his wife moved to Prairie Pines in 2014 and living there until his time of his death.
Surviving family members include his wife Darlene of 74 years; daughter Peggy Lee (Charlie) Wood, Chadron, NE, and son, Steven (Cynthia) Yantzi, Kemmerer, WY; five grandchildren: Kevin (Dana) Wood, Broken Bow, NE, Lori (Curt) Helgoth, Lincoln, NE, Lindsay (Dr. Jeff) Henning, Wenatchee, WA, Phillip (Tera) Yantzi, Jackson, WY, Julie Willman (Dr. Kent Hutton), Waterloo, NE; and eleven great-grandchildren: Tyler and Ava Wood; Will and Clara Helgoth; Becca, Alex and Elizabeth Henning; Ella and MJ Yantzi; Haley and Kaitlyn Willman; sister, Nancy Derickson, O’Neill, NE; Brother-in-law, Clayton (Lura) Goeke; numerous nieces and nephews.