The family will receive guests on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 from 6pm to 8pm at Griggs Schooler Gordon Funeral Directors, 5400 Bell St in Amarillo. Funeral Services will be held on Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 2pm in the funeral home’s Pioneer Chapel with T.C. Messer presiding. Herman will be laid to rest with his wife Norma in Memory Gardens Cemetery, located on Interstate 27 and McCormick Road in Amarillo.
Herman came into this world on May 28, 1937 in Ravia, Oklahoma where he grew up and graduated, leaving a lasting mark as a mischievous and ornery child that loved to tell his stories to any and everyone who would listen. At the age of 17, he left home and set off to California. Running out of money in Amarillo, Texas, he settled down and took a job with the Sanitation Department with the City of Amarillo. He met the love of his, Norma LaJune Wickware and they were married on May 09, 1959. Together they raised five sons, R. Windell Holland Jr, Thomas David Holland, Mitchell Dell Holland, Donald Lee Wallar, and Roy Dan Wallar. They were blessed with 13 grandchildren, 31 great grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren. They enjoyed 49 years of marriage before they were separated by Norma’s death on October 19, 2008.
Herman as a child would lay beside the road and dream of being a truck driver as he watched the trucks drive by. In 1963, he made that dream a reality when he took his first job as a sand and gravel hauler for Harry Alan. He made a short bout as a farmer, but longed for the call of the road, and soon went back to driving a truck. He went to work for Baldwin Trucking as an over the road driver. As macular degeneration slowly took his sight, he moved into the recruitment field before finally retiring around 2014.
Herman was honored by being published in the National Truckin’ Magazine in the Wednesday, August 07, 2013 issue. The article was entitled “Herman Wallar…Generation after Generation” telling the story of his life.
Herman was an amazing artist, accomplished guitar player, and an avid gun and guitar collector. Along with collecting guns, he could also shoot them with amazing accuracy. Even after being declared legally blind, his groupings were still better than most people with perfect vision.
Some of his fondest memories were of hunting and fishing as a child in Ravia, and later in Amarillo with his sons.
Herman loved spending time with his family and friends telling the stories of his family history, childhood, life on the road as a trucker; and most fondly, his life with his loving wife and family whom he adored. He made a mark on the hearts of everyone who knew him, and he will be missed by all who ever met him.
Herman was preceded in death by his parents, Monk and Lela Wallar, sisters Effie Lewis, Jerry Riggs, and Anita Sulliven, wife Norma LaJune; two sons Thomas David Holland, and Mitchell Dell Holland, and two of his 13 grandchildren. Those left to cherish his memory are his sons R. Windell Holland Jr, Donald Lee Wallar, and Roy Dan Wallar; 11 grandchildren, 31 great grandchildren, two great-great grandchildren, and many other loving family and friends.
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