{"id":206917,"date":"2026-06-14T18:44:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=206917"},"modified":"2026-06-14T18:44:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T23:44:41","slug":"malcolm-j-mal-banta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/06\/14\/malcolm-j-mal-banta\/","title":{"rendered":"Malcolm J. (Mal) Banta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Malcolm J. (Mal) Banta, 77, of\u00a0Englewood, Florida,\u00a0passed away peacefully on Sunday, June 7, 2026, while in the care of Tidewell Hospice in Venice, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malcolm was born November 17, 1948, to Robert Malcolm and Julia Waneeta Banta of\u00a0Geneva, Indiana.
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Malcolm is survived by his wife of 55 years Betty Jo (Allison) Banta of\u00a0Englewood, Florida; a daughter, Dawn (David) Knezic of Bridgman, Michigan; a son, Travis (Megan) and three granddaughters Addison, Avery, and Harper Banta of Naples, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Malcolm Banta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Malcolm was a 1966 graduate of Geneva High School in\u00a0Geneva. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1968 and was part of the 101st Airborne Division. He proudly served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970. He received the Bronze Star Medal and was also a Purple Heart recipient. He returned home in 1970 and returned to work at General Electric in Decatur, Indiana. While at General Electric, he held various positions. He was a foreman when the plant closed in 1989. Prior to the plant closing he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Indiana University. After General Electric closed its operations in Decatur, Malcolm was hired as the vice-president of operations for Pemco Die-Casting in Bridgman, Michigan, where he was employed for 10 years until he and Betty moved to Holland, Michigan, and he became vice-president of operations for Gallant Inc. in Zeeland, Michigan, until he retired in 2006. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After retirement in 2007, Malcolm and Betty moved to Rotonda, Florida, then to Englewood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malcolm loved God, his country that he fought for, and his family most of all. Malcolm enjoyed reading the Bible, studying history, was an avid Chicago Bears fan and enjoyed fishing, boating, and working outdoors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malcolm was a member of several organizations — Masons, Scottish Rite, Shriners, American Legion, Moose, and the Elks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was preceeded in death by his father and mother; a brother, (Gregory) Mark Banta of\u00a0Geneva; two sisters-in-law, Linda (Allison) Baer of Convoy and Beckie (Werling) Allison of Fremont, Indiana. Also surviving are a sister-in-law, Beverly Allison of Convoy; three brothers-in-law, Robert (Kay) Allison, of Norfolk, Virginia, Paul Allison of Fremont, Indiana, and Charles Baer of Convoy, and many nieces and nephews and their families.
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Interment with a military service will be held at Sarasota National Cemetery in Sarasota, Florida.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations be made to Tidewell Hospice in Venice, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To plant trees in memory, visit the Sympathy Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malcolm J. (Mal) Banta, 77, of\u00a0Englewood, Florida,\u00a0passed away peacefully on Sunday, June 7, 2026, while in the care of Tidewell Hospice in Venice, Florida. Malcolm was born November 17, 1948, to Robert Malcolm and Julia Waneeta Banta of\u00a0Geneva, Indiana.\u00a0Malcolm is survived by his wife of 55 years Betty Jo (Allison) Banta of\u00a0Englewood, Florida; a daughter, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-22 23:53:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206917"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206920,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206917\/revisions\/206920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}