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Howard Laney Obituary
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Memories and Condolences
for Howard Laney
Sponsored by the Laneys.
Nick Wetherall
April 16, 2008
Summer, 1973. I am shagging fly balls for my brother's little league team up at Malone Elementary. I turn away for a moment and someone yells "heads up". I turn back in time to raise my hands and knock the ball down. I look at my right hand and notice the tip of my index finger is bent at a 90 degree angle. Its early evening, so we figure Doc Laney is at home, not in the office. I walk to his house with a buddy. Knock on the door. Doc answers, takes one look at my finger and straightens it out without saying a word. No charge. Back to the baseball game. Those were the days. A very good man, may he rest in peace.
Tom Keough
April 14, 2008
What more can you say about a man that was as gentle and caring as Grandpa Laney. When I try and desrcibe him to people---I use examples like--in "The Field of Dreams" Burt Lancaster played the part of a small town doctor who never got his shot at the big leagues--but when it came down to it--it would have been a far greater loss for him to not have been a doctor---because he affected so many lives in a positive way.
Or like "Doc Hollywood" where there was another small town doctor---and it showed what an impact a man like that has on the people of that town---and how fulfilling it can be for that person.
Grandpa Laney is the "George Bailey" of Prescott---he may have not made the most money---but he was the richest man in town!!
Listening to everyone talk about Grandpa---had a very humbling affect on me (and I'm sure the same for a lot of people) it makes you think about your life, and hopefully makes you want to be a better person, and to try and help people in need---Gramps was a role model that we should all strive to achieve!
We love him and miss him!! But he will never be forgotten!
Mary Henehan (Laney)
April 9, 2008
Gramp set an example for each one of us to follow. One of goodness, truth, faith, love, kindness, and FUN. He had a love of life that showed in everything he did. I will forever remember the little hop in his step, his smile, laugh and tear from his eye when you told him a good story or shared something about your life. I feel a great sense of pride to be his granddaughter. I love you Gramp!
P.S. I'm going whitewater rafting with the Keough Boys, there will be more good/fun stories to be told!!
Carmel Funk (Laney)
April 8, 2008
I have HUNDREDS of wonderful memories of hanging out with Gramp. We would come and stay for weeks during school breaks. Seemed he and Gram didn't care if we ever went home. They'd love if you stayed forever and we ALWAYS felt welcomed. He was a terrific Grandpa who was always there with his time and love and I was very blessed to have him in my life. Gramp, you will be sooooo missed!!!
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Katie & Doc enjoying life
Tom Laney
March 31, 2008
We celebrate the great and friendly life of a man who believed the family is the foundation of a virtuous, democratic community and society. He loved life, his family and friends and never tired in the Good Fight for tradition, discipline, good humor and the Catholic Work Ethic. Dr. Laney practiced medicine in Prescott for 50 years after graduating from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in 1935, interning in Portland in 1936 and serving as Physician for an Idaho CC Camp in 1937. In 1938, he married Katie May of Madison and they arrived in Prescott in 1938 where they had seven children. They enjoyed a long love affair with the Prescott community. Doc Laney was a lifetime fan of the Wisconsin Badgers, the Milwaukee Braves & Brewers, The 12-Time World Champion Green Bay Packers, the Prescott Cardinals, the Catholic Church and The Common Man as defined by the great Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton. He leaves sons Tom of Colfax; Dr. Bill Laney of Faribault; Daughters Mary Keough, Placida, FL; Libby Pappalardo, Chicago; and, Trish Staiger, Hastings. He is survived by 23 grandchildren and 47 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by son Mike and wife Katie.
We had leaned through the "S" and "Suicide" curves on the old Prescott/Hastings road back in our day when it was a decent training stretch for Elkhart Lake . We were talking about our Ireland trip as we spied St. Joe's silver domes above; Blockers Beach and the St. Croix beside us when Dad said, "This is still the most beautiful place in the world. It's great to be home!" Now, Prescott is a beautiful place but no scenic match for Ireland. So included in Dad's view of Prescott as the world's most beautiful place, were all his wonderful friends in and around Prescott. He was only gone a week but he missed you. We want you to know that he loved you all as much as you loved him. God bless you all for all the wonderful things you did for our Dad.
- The Dr. Howard J. Laney Family
Bill’s Eulogy:
My dad was born during an April blizzard in 1907 in Alma Center, Wisconsin. The local doctor was summoned and with his horse and buggy made it through the storm to the Laney farm in time for the delivery. Thirty one years later, now a doctor himself, Dad drove through a snow storm to deliver his first baby in Prescott; a premature infant that he put in a shoebox and then into the oven to keep the baby warm—a 1938 incubator. I heard this story for the first time during Dad’s 100th birthday celebration, and it is a wonderful example of the skillful and dedicated care that he offered to the people of Prescott for over 40 years. His work was repaid by the admiration and friendship of the community, things much more valuable than money.
Vince Lombardi-you can’t have a Wisconsin funeral without mentioning him- said that the important things in life are Family, Religion and Work, in that order. He was right about the important things, but wrong about the order. To Dad, they were inseparable: His family was given everything, most importantly love, respect, and his impeccable sense of right and wrong. His work was his patients, and he treated them as if they were his family at any time of the day or night. These things he learned from his religion, where Christ taught him to do good for others, always with a sense of humility and kindness. So all of these things are equally important, and cannot be distinguished one from the other. That is how Dad lived his life.
On the anniversary of his 100th year, more than 400 of his former patients, friends, and family-many of whom are here today- took time out to honor him. There were many more stories in addition to his first delivery that were shared, and Dad remembered most of them, and the people telling them. There were many trips through the snow, and many rescues by the farmers when he would get stuck. His car was the first ambulance in Prescott, as he personally transported many of his patients to the hospital when needed. He was a counselor and physician to the psychiatric inpatients at St. Croixdale. Every Sunday he would make rounds at St. Croixdale, and bring his children into the locked rooms to greet the patients. Imagine how therapeutic it must have been for these patients to have their doctor trust his children with them. His common sense approach to problems was the best care they could possibly have received.
There was never a call that went unanswered, including the worst imaginable—to go to the aid of his son who had suffered a fatal motorcycle accident. Dad remained outwardly calm and strong throughout that nightmare with Mike, but at the time told me how worried he was that he had not been a good doctor as his mind was on his son while listening to his patients. You would expect nothing less from a man so principled and selfless as my father.
The people and their memories filled his 100th birthday celebration, and the party was a beautiful testament to his success as a doctor, and as a man. He would speak about it with great enjoyment for months after.
A man’s mind and his memory is much like a tree. As you age, the tree grows and branches out, becoming more expansive as the years go by. At its height, it forms the soul of a man, and is a magnificent example of God’s work. Eventually, the growth stops, and the circulation to the tops of the tree begins to fail. Those memory leaves last formed start to wilt and die, branches fall away and the tree gradually loses some of its character. The trunk continues to thrive for a time, and the memories embedded there, formed during the tree’s younger years, persist. In recent years Dad would talk much about those earlier times, never more lovingly than when they involved his darling Katie. “Aren’t I lucky to love Katie May, and aren’t I lucky that Katie May loves me?” he would say. Could there be a more touching thing for a man to say of his wife?
William Butler Yeats wrote a haunting poem about a man searching for the woman of his dreams:
The Song of the Wandering Aengus
by William Butler Yeats
I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I turned to blow the fire aflame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
So, that is how I now see Dad: Together with his Katie and his son Mike, walking hand in hand through the dappled grass of the fields in heaven, smiling, together at peace for eternity.
Thank you all for honoring my father by your presence here today.
- Dr. William Howard Laney
Ron and Jaci Willow
March 30, 2008
We would like to express our condolences, on behalf of ourselves and our company, The Toy House, to the Laney Family. Doc. Laney was very helpful to the founder of our company, Warren Gochenour, and to us, also. We all felt his warmth, friendship and generosity.
Tom Laney and family with Dad at cabin
March 30, 2008
tom driscoll
March 30, 2008
doc was always good to our family. he will be greatly missed but never forgotten.
Santino Scalici
March 30, 2008
To The Great Laney Family,
Tom and I have been running mates for a few years now and I cherish his friendship and that of his family. My stepson James and I visited Tom, Barb and Doc Laney last summer. He was a very warm and friendly guy, one morning enjoying peace and quiet and a cup of coffee with his son at his own breakfast table that he has enjoyed for 70 years. Will we all be so lucky?
Good Luck and God Bless Doc Laney, We'll see you when we get there. Keep the coffee hot for us!
Doc Laney's bio has been published at www.appealforcommonsense.com.
With Love and Solidarity,
Santino, Betsy, James and Julian
Howard Salter
March 29, 2008
Grandpa,
I am sad that you died. I really miss you and I love you. My mom and dad really miss you too. I just wanted to tell you that I have new shoes. I want to let you know that I love you so, so , so, much.
Love,
Howard (Laney) Salter
Age 5
Steve Beying
March 29, 2008
My first rememberance of Doctor Laney was when he came to Hastings to attend to my brother, or I when we were ill in the middle of the night, his pajamas showing below his pant cuffs. Little did I know how close I would become with his family.When we moved to Prescott when I was 12 years old his son Tom, and I became the best of friends. All through my teen years it was as if I were a family member. I recall going to Wisconsin-Minnesota football games at memorial stadium with Tom, and Doc, and the birthday bbq's at the cabin for Tom,and all the time I spent at their home. I will cherish these memories for all time. I am sure the children will carry on the love for others their father instilled in them. It is an honor and privilege to know, and be so close to them.
Barb Laney, Shannon and Mary Keough at the ballpark with Dad.
Tom Laney
March 29, 2008
Doc Laney was a great Saints fan going all the way back to Lexington Park. We'll be remembering him this year at our tailgate.
Mary (Laney) Henehan is organizing for the Saints Irish Night. You're invited to our tailgate! Have a beer & brat with us on Doc!
Call Mary at 651-730-5719 to let us know you're coming.
What: Doc Laney Luck O'the Irish Night Saint Paul Saints
Midway Stadium
Date: Thurs. July 24th
When: Tailgate starts at 3:00 p.m. Game time 7:00 p.m.
Attire: Green,,,,,lot's of Green
Cost: $12-$17 per person, Mary will update later when I have a good head count
Chris (Baker) Kuhn
March 28, 2008
I remember Doc Laney from growing up in Prescott. He was a wonderful man; definitely an icon in Prescott. He will be missed. May God bless you and your family.
Our Dad had a lot in common with Vince Lombardi!
Tom Laney
March 28, 2008
Dad and me at the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame. He loved people more than anyone I've ever known. He loved sports. Brett Favre was his favorite football player on his favorite football team.
Maria Wetherall
March 27, 2008
Condolences to all of you the Laney family and friends of this great man. I remember his loving care on many occasions but in particular on a day when I limped up Main street from the river with a big, rusty nail in the bottom of my foot. I knew exactly where to go and Doc Laney greeted me with his calm, reassuring care. A kind man, a gentle man and a wonderful citizen of Prescott . He will be remembered.
Beth Beying
March 27, 2008
Love and sympathy to the Laney family. Doc was a cornerstone not just of his family but of an entire community. How glad I am that I was privileged to know him and be one of his patients.
Jim Valesano
March 27, 2008
Dear Laney family,
We are sorry to hear of your loss. What is your loss is Heavens gain.
When I think of Dr. Laney the words:servant, loving, generous and wise. He was always a consistent friend to Ruth and me.
Last Badger game for Howie1; 1st for Howie 2
March 27, 2008
Dad and his Katie May
March 27, 2008
March 27, 2008
Enjoying Florida
March 27, 2008
Mom's tree in Dermot Halpin's yard
March 27, 2008
grilling--he was great
March 27, 2008
wedding anniversary at the cabin
March 27, 2008
Bill Laney
March 27, 2008
I've posted a few of my favorite pictures of Dad and I hope people enjoy them. His life was long, but time is too short to relate his generosities to the people he cared for.
Kevin Magee
March 26, 2008
Sorry to hear about Doc. passing away. He always made a point to take care of our family. Your family did an awesome job taking care of him all of these years. He was one-of-a-kind and will be missed dearly.
Tom Laney
March 26, 2008
This is in memory of Doc Laney who drove through midnight snowstorms to deliver lots of babies:
Babies
by G.K. Chesterton
The two facts which attract almost every normal person to children are, first, that they are very serious, and secondly, that they are in consequence very happy. . .
The most unfathomable schools and sages have never attained to the gravity which dwells in the eyes of a baby of three months old. It is the gravity of astonishment at the universe, and astonishment at the universe is not mysticism, but a transcendent common sense. The fascination of children lies in this: that with each of them all things are remade, and the universe is put again upon its trial. As we walk the streets and see below us those delightful bulbous heads, three times too big for the body, which mark these human mushrooms, we ought always to remember that within every one of these heads there is a new universe, as new as it was on the seventh day of creation. In each of those orbs there is a new system of stars, new grass, new cities, a new sea.
. . . If we could see the stars as a child sees them, we should need no other apocalypse. . . We may scale the heavens and find new stars innumerable, but there is still the new star we have not found - [the one] on which we were born. But the influence of children goes further than its first trifling effort of remaking heaven and earth. It forces us actually to remodel our conduct in accordance with this revloutionary theory of the marvellousness of all things. We do actually treat talking in children as marvellous, walking in children as marvellous, common intelligence in children as marvellous. . . [and] that attitude towards children is right. It is our attitude towards grown up people that is wrong. . .
Our attitude towards children consists in a condescending indulgence, overlying an unfathomable respect; [we reverence, love, fear and forgive them.] We bow to grown people, take off our hats to them, refrain from contradicting them flatly, but we do not appreciate them properly. . . If we treated all grown-up persons with precisely that dark affection and dazed respect with which we treat [the limitations of an infant, accepting their blunders, delighted at all their faltering attempts, marveling at their small accomplishments], we should be in a far more wise and tolerant temper. . .
The essential rectitude of our view of children lies in the fact that we feel them and their ways to be supernatural while, for some mysterious reason, we do not feel oursleves or our own ways to be supernatural. The very smallness of children makes it possible to regard them as marvels; we seem to be dealing with a new race, only to been through a microscope. I doubt if anyone of any tenderness or imagination can see the hand of a child and not be a little frightened of it. It is awful to think of the essential human energy moving so tiny a thing; it is like imagining that human nature could live in the wing of a butterfly or the leaf of a tree. When we look upon lives so human and yet so small. . . we feel the same kind of obligation to these creatures that [God] might feel. . .
But [it is] the humorous look of children [that] is perhaps the most endearing of all the bonds that hold the cosmos together. . . [They] give us the most perfect hint of the humor that awaits us in the kingdom of heaven.
Tom Laney
March 26, 2008
Dr. Howard J. Laney, 100, died March 25 2008 in Prescott, WI.
Dr. Laney practiced medicine in Prescott for 50 years after graduating from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in 1935, interning in Portland in 1936 and serving as Physician for an Idaho CC Camp in 1937.
In 1938 he married Katie May of Madison and they arrived in Prescott in 1938 where they had seven children. He believed the family, not the individual, was the foundation of a virtuous, democratic society. They enjoyed a long love affair with the Prescott community.
Doc Laney was a lifetime fan of the Wisconsin Badgers, the Milwaukee Braves & Brewers, The 12-Time World Champion Green Bay Packers, the Prescott Cardinals, the Catholic Church and The Common Man.
He leaves sons Dr. Bill Laney of Faribault; Tom of Colfax; Daughters Mary Keough, Placida, FL; Libby Pappalardo, Chicago; and, Trish Staiger, Hastings.
He is survived by 23 grandchildren and 47 great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by son Mike and wife Katie.
Larry and Ann Countryman
March 26, 2008
Our deepest sympathy to the whole family for your loss. We have great memories of our families together on many occasions.
Love, Larry and Ann (Hilger) Countryman
The Family
March 26, 2008
Dr. Howard J. Laney, 100, died March 25 2008 in Prescott, WI. Dr. Laney practiced medicine in Prescott for 50 years after graduating from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in 1935, interning in Portland in 1936 and serving as Physician for an Idaho CC Camp in 1937.
In 1938 he married Katie May of Madison and they arrived in Prescott in 1938 where they had seven children. They enjoyed a long love affair with the Prescott community.
Doc Laney was a lifetime fan of the Wisconsin Badgers, the Milwaukee Braves & Brewers, The 12-Time World Champion Green Bay Packers, the Prescott Cardinals the Catholic Church and The Common Man.
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