Obituary – Joseph “Joe” Gunter
Joseph Oscar “Joe” Gunter (b. 20-Apr-1936, d. 16-Jul-2025), age 89, has slipped the bounds of this earth and passed over to God’s Country. He lived a full life and will long be remembered as “The Walnut King” of Success, Missouri. For most of his life, he was in the business of cutting standing walnut trees to produce walnut veneer.
Joe was preceded in death by his parents, John Isreal Gunter (1906-1986) and Beatrice Anne Collins (1910-1988); three brothers, Wayne Gunter (1927-2014), John Wayland Gunter (1933-2017), and Robert Lee Gunter (1943-2012); and two sisters, Sylvia Maxine Gunter Peterman (1929-2021), and Zella Mae Gunter Marshell Rhodes (1931-2024).
He is survived by his brother, David, and wife Daisy, of West Plains, Mo.; his sister-in-law, Lovella Gunter, of Houston, Mo.; his wife, Shirley (Davenport) Gunter, of Success, Mo.; son Rick Gunter and wife Debra, of Sparta, Mo.; daughter Tammy Martin and husband Roger, of Houston, Mo.; daughter Vicki Nelson and husband Terry, of Licking, Mo.; and daughter Kelly Gunter, of Fayetteville, Ark. Also, five grandchildren, Amanda Blackwell, of Plano, Texas; Jeremy Gunter, of San Angelo, Texas; Jason Martin, of Houston, Mo.; Joseph Nelson, of Licking, Mo.; and Whitney Nelson, of Topeka, Kan. Joe is also survived by twelve great-grandchildren.
Joe lived on a 40-acre farm in Ozark County, near Pottersville, Mo., until he was about eight years old. His father then bought a larger farm near Hocomo, Mo. Joe grew up on that farm and went to grade school at the Egypt Grove School. He attended Egypt Grove Church where he accepted Jesus as his Savior at a young age. He graduated from high school in West Plains, Mo., in 1952.
After high school Joe worked in Colorado as a ranch cowboy and then at a Rocky Mountain sawmill. He came back to Missouri about 1957 and went into the iron mining business with his father and brothers. After the business failed, he went to Success, Mo., with his dad and brothers and ran a sawmill that cut over a million board feet of lumber to pay off their mining debts. Joe then met his future wife, Shirley Davenport, who lived next door, and they were married in 1958. Joe and Shirley lived in the Success area for the remainder of their lives, raising a son and three daughters.
For many years, Joe harvested standing walnut timber, shipping walnut veneer logs to many destinations, including Italy and Japan. Many of his family and friends knew him as “Good ‘ol Joe.” He enjoyed life and spent many years deer and turkey hunting, fishing for trout, bass, and goggle-eye, and restoring antique Model T and Model A Ford cars.
Services are being held under the direction of Evans Funeral Home in Houston, Missouri. The burial will be in the Oakland Cemetery at Success, Missouri. Online condolences may be left at www.evansfh.com.
