John Joseph Oehrli

Joe was born 2.5 months early on February 23, 1945.  The doctors couldn’t do much for a preemie then so they sent him home in a shoe box and told his mom to keep pinching him to exercise his lungs. She must have done a good job because he had the breath to tell a million stories in his lifetime until he couldn’t tell anymore and passed away on October 4, 2026.

Joe told some great stories about his childhood like the one where he broke both his legs falling out of the haymow; how he flipped over the tractor in the ditch at Uncle Toot’s and had to hold his head above water until he was rescued; and how his dad caught him and his brother smoking cigarettes and made them each smoke a whole pack.  Joe got a standing ovation when he walked across his high school graduation stage. He had a big heart and his childhood friends still greeted him warmly when he called them every year at Christmas or saw them at the hardware store.

Joe was an eyewitness to history.  He served on the U.S.S. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr during the Cuban Missile Crisis blockade and was cleaning the side of the ship when the news came through that John F. Kennedy had been killed.  He was living in Memphis when Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated and even saw Elvis and the “Memphis Mafia” buy black socks from the bargain bin at the store across the street from Graceland – because even the King knows a good deal when he sees one!  He met his beautiful wife, Sharon, in Memphis and married into a family that loved telling stories just as much as he did.  He loved pinochle and if you ever got to play euchre with Joe you learned how much a water pump can distract you from finally beating your euchre nemesis.

Joe came back to Hersey in 1971 where he raised his family, eventually reviving the family dairy farm and working the same fields that he worked with his dad.  He restored the old Oliver with his buddies at Neal’s Service in Evart and loved raking hay on his 230.  He built chimneys with his buddy Ed and loved to fish, dance, and tell people that Jeremiah was a bullfrog. Joe could fix almost anything and if he didn’t have the part he needed to fix something, he knew someone who did or he’d improvise, probably using binder twine or fencing wire.

Joe loved watching the Coyotes play basketball and never missed out on telling kids that free throws were … free.  After he retired from farming, Joe worked at a sawmill and volunteered in Mr. Koopman’s shop class where he helped high school students with their projects and made a lifelong friend in Koop.  He had coffee on Saturday mornings with his buddy, Jeanette. He had room in his heart for everyone and you always felt better after talking to Grandpa or Uncle Joe.  Somehow his heart got even bigger when he had his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  He eventually got to work at the hardware store where everyone in town knew his name. 

Joe never met a stranger and leaves behind many friends and relatives who will come together to tell stories about Joe at a celebration planned for a later date.  Joe’s family would like to thank the many healthcare workers who took care of him during his last few months, especially Dean who promised the family that Joe really was his favorite patient.  Joe was the last of his siblings and was preceded in death by his mom Shirley, his dad Shorty, his brother, Pat, and his sisters, Iwana and Kathy.  He is survived by his wife, Sharon, his daughter, Angie, and his son, Tim (Jennifer); his grandchildren Jordan, Megan (Jake), and Joe (Tim); and his great-grandchildren Jameson, Mara, Gema, and Finn; as well as many nieces and nephews. 

Joe’s stories survive too.  See you on the flipside, Joe, Dad … Papa.  Say, “Hey,” to Ole JC for us.