{"id":207209,"date":"2026-06-23T12:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=207209"},"modified":"2026-06-23T14:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T19:32:17","slug":"walter-wally-rhodes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/06\/23\/walter-wally-rhodes\/","title":{"rendered":"Walter “Wally” Rhodes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Walter \u201cWally\u201d Rhodes, 86, of Huntertown, Indiana, and formerly of Ohio City, passed away Sunday afternoon, June 21, 2026, at his home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was born November 19, 1939, in Van Wert, to Paul Profit Rhodes and Lenore Mae (Rice) Rhodes, who both preceded him in death. On August 23, 1980, he married Cheryl Ann (Leonard) Rhodes in Northbrook, Illinois, and she survives in Huntertown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Left to cherish his memory are his wife, Cheryl; a brother, Paul M. (Anita) Rhodes of Fredericksburg, Virginia; a sister, Cynthia A. (Vincent) Belmonte of Gaithersburg, Maryland; nieces, Karen (Keith) Schmid of Ohio City, and Kelly (Rod) Cooper of Middle Point, and a brother-in-law, John M. (Donna) Leonard of Douglas, Michigan.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Wally was preceded in death by his sister, Marilyn (Ned) Scheidt of Van Wert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter was a 1957 graduate of Ohio City-Liberty High School and a 1959 graduate of International Business College. He was employed by International Harvester of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1959 and retired from the restructured company, Navistar in Chicago, Illinois. Upon retirement, he was a member of the Corporate Controller\u2019s staff as the Director of Financial Analysis. Over many years, with integrity and hard work, Walter become a highly respected executive, with direct contact to the Chairman of the Board of Directors. His financial guidance assisted the company in the restructuring process. Today,, Navistar is part of International Motors LLC and continues as a member of the Volkswagen Traton Group. Wally was also a U.S. Army veteran, serving from May 20, 1962 to January 17, 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon retirement, Walter and Cheryl lived in Arkansas, Georgia and Florida before returning to the Midwest in April 2003. Wally was an avid fan of many sports teams (St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Bulls, Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts and those Ohio State Buckeyes). His life was an example of true kindness, strength, resilience and optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private graveside service will be held at a later date, with burial at Ohio City Woodlawn Cemetery. Funeral services are provided by Cowan & Son Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Van Wert.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preferred memorials to the Ohio City United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expressions of sympathy may be forwarded at cowanfuneralhome.com.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walter \u201cWally\u201d Rhodes, 86, of Huntertown, Indiana, and formerly of Ohio City, passed away Sunday afternoon, June 21, 2026, at his home. He was born November 19, 1939, in Van Wert, to Paul Profit Rhodes and Lenore Mae (Rice) Rhodes, who both preceded him in death. On August 23, 1980, he married Cheryl Ann (Leonard) […]<\/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-207209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-14 04:21:50","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\/207209","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=207209"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207217,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207209\/revisions\/207217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}