Mostly Cloudy, 30° F
(January 5, 2003)
Funeral services will be conducted Friday at 10 a.m. in the LDS Cody Stake Center for McKay Avery, 85, of Cody, who died Sunday, Jan. 5 at the West Park Hospital.
Viewing will be Thursday, Jan. 9 at the Ballard Funeral Home in Cody from 6 to 8 p.m. Interment will be in Cody's Riverside Cemetery with military graveside rites.
He was born March 3, 1917 in Venice, Utah, the sixth of eight children born to William and Martha Avery. In 1935, he graduated from high school three days after his father's death.
He attended Brigham Young University and graduated with an accounting degree in 1940. He then went to Washington, D.C., where he worked as an accountant in a government office.
During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army and was stationed at Guadalcanal.
He married Margie Steenson in 1948 in Richfield, Utah. He applied for and received a Heart Mountain homestead on Ralston Bench near Powell where he farmed and ranched. The couple had three daughters and one son.
In 1971, he married Ruth Riley. They were later sealed in the LDS Salt Lake City Temple. After he retired from farming, they moved to Cody.
He was an active member of the 59ers Rock Club and the Cody Senior Center. He had a lifetime membership in the VFW Post 2673 and was a past president of the Park County Historical Society. He and his wife were members of the Powell and Cody square dance clubs, and they attended three national square dance conventions.
He was a member of the LDS Church and was an avid genealogist. He served in many positions in the church.
Survivors include his wife, Ruth, of Cody; three daughters, Carol Brimhall and husband Keith of Cowley, Linda Childs and husband Bruce of Lovell and Lorna Bunting and husband Jim of Penryn, Calif.; three step-sons, Walter Riley and wife Shirley of Vancouver, Wash., Larry Riley and wife Kathy of Casper and Mike Riley and wife Norma of Meeteetse; one step-daughter, Martha Knutson, of West Valley City, Utah; 25 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents; four brothers and three sisters; his son, Ivan; and a great-grandson, Tayson Childs.
