Edwin Barton 'Ed' Treece

Visitation will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25, at Holt Memorial Chapel, followed by a graveside service with Masonic rites at 1:30 p.m. at Maplewood Cemetery. 

Edwin Barton Treece, of Harrison, passed away Monday, Jan. 21 (2019) surrounded by his children and friends at his home on Gaither Mountain. 

Ed was born Aug. 28, 1942, in Fort Knox, Kentucky, the son of Virginia and FD "Cotton" Treece.

Visitation will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25, at Holt Memorial Chapel, followed by a graveside service at 1:30 p.m. at Maplewood Cemetery. Barton Hudspeth will officiate. Pallbearers are Gene Treece, Felix Perez, Pat Brown, Dale Carley, Don Howe, Tom Magness and Tom Bailey. Honorary pallbearers include Daniel De La Torre, Jake Watts, Jerid Watts and Steve Mathias.

Ed is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Shannon and Felix Perez, of Long Beach, California; his son and daughter-in-law, Gene and Wanda Treece, of Harrison; two granddaughters, Jennifer and Daniel Del La Torre and Gabriella Donato of San Pedro, California; and his sister, Doris Milburn, of Harrison.  

Ed was preceded in death by his wife of 56 years, Sherry, and his grandson, Joseph Michael Donato.

Ed and Sherry met in Branson in 1958, where he graduated in the class of 1960 Buccaneer Pirates playing baseball, football, Key Club and track. His senior yearbook was quoted as "He has a good line and usually puts it over.” Ed spent his free time working for his father and owner of the Branson Tire & Exchange, running a recovery dive service retrieving many lost cameras and fishing rods in the area lakes and barefoot skiing on Lake Taneycomo with his many friends of Branson and Harrison area.

Ed and Sherry were married Feb. 9, 1963, by the Reverend D.D. McAdams at the Christian Church of Branson and established their first home in Childersburg, Alabama, where he began his life long career building major construction projects. 

Shannon Dee was born June of 1964 in Branson, Missouri, and Eugene "Geno" Barton was later born in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, in June of 1968. Ed traveled with his family and worked across the southern and central Midwest on projects such as the Arkansas River Project from Dewitt, Little Rock, Ozark, Sallisaw and Harrison until he began his longest project in Warsaw, Missouri, in 1971, relocating his family there in 1973 to work and complete the Osage River Basin project named the Harry S. Truman Dam & Reservoir for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1980. 

Upon completion, Ed was transferred to California with his family into the John Muir Wilderness at Lake Wishon for the PG&E Helms Hydro Power Plant. Ed continued to advance his career and family in Stockton, California, where he worked for the lower SOHIO Sealift Project on the Delta where they became members of the Lodi Boat Club and enjoyed many friends and celebratory events on the California waterways. In the fall of 1983 he was sent to the North Slope at Prudoe Bay, Alaska for SOHIO OIL. 

After years of travel, Ed and Sherry returned home to Harrison in 1992 where they purchased the family home on Gaither Mountain and enjoyed the wildlife including many deer, rabbit and the occasional black bears. Ed joined his lifelong friend and owner of Arkansas Freightways when he began working as a project manager in the Properties Deptartment at the new American Freightways. He discovered the pleasure of flying to work on Aug. 18, 1992, in the corporate Piper Cheyenne II pressurized twin engine turbo at a cruising ground speed of 292 mph to work, leaving Mondays and back home buzzing the family home on Thursdays to let Sherry, the love of his life, know he was home and landing in Harrison. 

At the young age of 60 and now Fed Ex Freight, he chose retirement with Sherry where he continued his love of building, only this time it was a swimming pool and they happily began the summer-time reunion pool parties known for cannon balls, pot luck, barbecue and many childhood stories and memories shared by both Ed and Sherry's classmates and dearest friends from Branson and beyond. 

In 2015, Ed was honored on his 50 years of membership in Freemasonry as a Master Mason by The Grand Lodge of Missouri in existence for 194 years at that time. 

As Ed said shortly before he passed on to reunite with our mother......"You know the Rest." 

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to Legacy Hospice, 702 North Main Street, Suite A, Harrison, AR 72601.  

Condolences can be left online at www.holtchapel.com .