“Near perfect is good enough.” Dad liked to say with his dry wit, but a more perfect man would be hard to find.

Allan Leroy Anderson, age 83, passed away May 13, 2017 at his rural Morland farmstead. He was born April 5, 1934 at the same rural homestead where he died, his favorite place on earth. His deep connection with the land and his Irish family roots were passed down to him from this parents and never left him. He was the only son of Robert John Anderson III and Susie May Elizabeth McCoy.

He attended Prairie View, Pleasant Valley and Union grade school and graduated from Morland Rural High School in 1952.

He served in the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1959 and was honorably discharged on April 9, 1959. During his service he spent fourteen months in Korea.

On August 26, 1960, Allan married the love of his life, Carol Rose Bivens, and they enjoyed fifty-seven years of playing around together. He loved music from a young age and started playing guitar when he was around fourteen years of age. He played in a country and western band for many years starting at the young age of 16 and for 60 years thereafter. He was a self-taught musician who could play just about anything. In 1977, Allan taught Carol how to play the bass guitar and she joined the band. He played guitar and fiddle with Ramblin’ Andy, The Country Gents, and Cross Country Music, among others.

Allan and Carol started farming right after they got married, but in June of 1962 he moved his family to Wichita and pursued operation of a music school with his cousin, Andy Anderson. He missed the farm though and returned home to farm with his parents in 1963. He loved the land, cattle, horses, dogs and even the four-wheeler when it came along.

The couple decided to build their own house and moved into it in 1973. Allan was thrilled to get his private pilot license on November 9, 1978 and enjoyed any excuse to go flying.
He was recently honored as a sixty-year member of the Masonic Lodge and a fifty-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star.

Allan was preceded in death by his father, Robert, and his mother, Susie.
He is survived by his wife Carol of rural Morland, a daughter Teresa Wasinger and her husband Don, of Wichita and a daughter, Rhonda Goddard, and her husband John, of rural Penokee, five grandchildren, Jim Roy, Rick Roy, Cody Roy and his wife Jennifer, Lucas Goddard and Cordell Goddard and two great grandchildren, Noah and Dixie Rose.

The funeral is Friday, May 19 at Stinemetz Funeral Home and Chapel at 11 a.m. Graveside service is at South Star Cemetery, rural Morland.