TCHULA — Henry Christmas “Buddy” Waterer Jr. was always known for being a good Christian, a good farmer and an accomplished businessman.
But what Mr. Waterer really liked to do was slip the surly bonds of Earth. He was a pilot of the first order.
Waterer
On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Mr. Waterer, 88, passed away.
“We lost a good man,” said Johnny Favara, commander of American Legion Post 29, where Mr. Waterer was a longtime member.
Mr. Waterer, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, received a funeral Saturday, with full military honors, from the Post 29 Honor Guard at Pinecrest Cemetery near Tchula. The funeral was limited to family members due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, Favara said.
A memorial service is planned for later this year, he said.
“It saddens me that while we’re under these stay-at-home orders, we can’t celebrate his life,” said Steve Flemming of Cruger.
Flemming’s father, planter Henry Forrest Flemming, and Mr. Waterer, were first cousins.
For most of his life, Mr. Waterer lived on Shotwell Plantation near Tchula.
Steve Flemming, who serves as headmaster at Benton Academy, also served as a pallbearer at Saturday’s graveside service.
Mr. Waterer was “an accomplished pilot and a super, super intelligent man,” Flemming said.
Mr. Waterer was the son of Henry C. Waterer Sr. and Lucille Beevers Waterer. He is survived by two sons, three siblings, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. He also was blessed to have a loving relationship with Penny Frazer of Clarksdale for the last 18 years of his life.
Mr. Waterer lived most of his life in Holmes County except for the time he served in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as a flight instructor at the Greenville Air Force Base in Greenville, now known as the Greenville Airport.
On the second floor of the airport, Favara said, there are several items from Mr. Waterer’s military service. “He’s mentioned a lot in there.”
“He was flying a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, and there was a picture taken of him from behind his shoulder. He said simply, ‘This is my office,’” Favara recalled.
Allan Hammons, president of Hammons & Associates of Greenwood and an aviation buff, said Mr. Waterer contributed significantly to the Greenville exhibit.
“I met him a couple of decades ago. To me, he always seemed to be bigger than life,” Hammons said.
Flemming said that after his father returned from World War II, he worked for Mr. Waterer’s father on Shotwell Plantation. Flemming said Mr. Waterer and his wife, Jane Patton Waterer, were great parents who “brought their sons up in a loving home.”
Mr. Waterer achieved the rank of captain in the Air Force flying T-33s along with North American F-86 Sabres from 1953-1956.
A 1949 graduate of Tchula High School, he received a Bachelor of Science degree from Mississippi State University in agriculture in May 1953. While at the university, Mr. Waterer was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps and was a Purina Scholarship recipient.
He married his beloved wife in November 1957.
When he returned to Shotwell, he built a home complete with a runway and hangar right next door. He and his Cessna 172 were a regular sight in the skies over Holmes County.
“He took me on a few rides,” Flemming said jokingly.
“After he retired, it was almost a daily event that he’d fly around,” Flemming said. “You’d see that red and white Cessna, and you’d know it was him.”
Mr. Waterer was an active member of Tchula United Methodist Church and later Lexington United Methodist Church. In his later years, he served as a lay minister and was involved with Gideons International. Additionally,he was involved with the Tchula Lions Club.
He served for many years as a board member at Cruger-Tchula Academy, where he was a founding member. He also served as a commission on the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board for 28 years and served as president of both Delta Electrical Cooperative of Greenwood and Cooperative Energy of Hattiesburg.
He became a member of Mensa at the age of 61.
In 2009, he was accepted to attend the U.S. Air Force War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama as a National Security Forum Fellow, Favara said.
Mr. Waterer was an active volunteer with Boy Scouts of America Troop 70 of Tchula, where he took a keen interest in the annual hunter safety course. He encouraged both of his sons to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.
Mr. Waterer loved military history, flying and shooting sports, and he continued to fly until the last few years of his life.
Wilson & Knight Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
