A MEMORIAL MASS OF CHRISTIAN BURIAL for Bill will be held Saturday, June 18, 2022 at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Montrose, Missouri. VISITATION will precede Mass from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

The CELEBRANT is Father Jason Koch

INURNMENT in Appleton City Cemetery will follow the Funeral Mass.

MEMORIALS are suggested to St. Mary's School or Missouri Right to Life.

William Wayne "Bill" McEwan, born November 24, 1948, lost his short battle with pulmonary fibrosis June 3, 2022, at his home southeast of Appleton City, Missouri. A lifelong resident of St. Clair and Henry counties, Bill was the son of John L and Fern L. (Bradley) McEwan.

Survivors include son John Craig McEwan and wife Juvy of Portal, Arizona, daughter Carla R. McEwan of rural Appleton City, grandson Carson William Johnson, and sisters Elizabeth Robertson of Los Lunas, New Mexico (husband Dennis), and Mary Beth Woods (fiance' Rockey Evans) of rural Osceola, thirteen nieces and nephews, and the girl he met at a dance at St. Mary's School in Montrose--his wife of 53 years--Carol (Kaumans) McEwan,

Bill, who grew up on the family farm, graduated in 1966 from St. Clair R-2 High School and in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in social studies from what is now the University of Central Missouri. For over a decade he worked helping youth choose and prepare for their future occupations, doing so the last several of those years for State Fair Community College before entering the cattle business, working his daytime hours on ancestral acreage he and Carol purchased and moonlighting as a security guard at the KCPL Montrose Power Station.

Bill had many hobbies. He loved to read from his collection of nonfiction books, especially stories of the Civil War, the two World Wars, and other American, world, and military history. He traveled to hunt and fish and taught his son, daughter, and grandson how to harvest game from nature's bounty. He trained bird dogs for hunting quail and pheasants, competing in field trials, winning, among other trophies, second place in the National Red Setter Derby. He became an avid deer hunter in both bow and rifle seasons to augment the contents of his freezer and eventually grace his wall with prized mounts. A favorite pastime in later years was to reload rifle shells and learn details about his favorite firearm, the mauser. He was a member of the National Rifle Association.

Proud of his Scots-Canadian great-grandfather John, who fought for the Union Army and afterward settled the McEwan farm in 1869, Bill also researched his Ditty ancestors who pioneered in the area in the 1840s and fought for the Confederacy. Close to his grandfather Leslie McEwan and his little sister Mary, he inherited a love of animals, particularly dogs and cats. During his mother's nursing home stay, he drove the 5 miles nearly every day to bring her dog Lucy to visit.  He enjoyed talking with people he met on the street, at the local gas stations, feed stores, and mechanics' shops. He had a sense of humor and a distinctive deep laugh that could make him briefly lose his ability to breathe and cause his face to turn bright red. He loved talking about the past with "old timers" he had just met or had known all of his life. After beating leukemia by being cancer-free for three years, he joked that having cancer was almost a good thing because of meeting so many caring people.

As a child, Bill was baptized a Christian at the Appleton City Trinity United Methodist Church. On Easter of 2015 he renewed his acceptance of the grace of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Confirmation that he received when he joined Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Montrose.