Dennis “Denny” Lee Greenwalt

Dennis "Denny" Lee Greenwalt was born February 7, 1942, the 2^nd child of Roy Elmont Greenwalt and Lennie Fern Fox Greenwalt. Both parents and his three brothers preceded him in death, Steven Elmont, Joseph Randall and Dean Mark Greenwalt.

Denny was born with many gifts, one being auto mechanics, taking his toy cars apart as a toddler, although he didn’t put them back together then. He learned later that it was more fun fixing them, and he was really good at it. He always knew that would be his life’s work.

He quit Beaumont High School to work full time on cars, which was the love of his life, until he met Ruth Ann George in April 1961 in Walnut Park at the service station where he worked. He lived with his family in Florissant, Missouri. At the time and he was building a 1928 Ford Roadster in their garage. He lost interest in the Roadster to pursue his wife to be. They were married January 20, 1962 at Grandview Baptist Church in St. Louis County.

Before their marriage he was the youngest person ever to sign papers purchasing a Texaco Service Station at age 19.

Their only child, Diana Lynn was born 1 ½ years later. She married Jerry Zelle and had three children; Benjamin, Kevin and Leanna. Denny loved spoiling them when they were little.

The day Diana was born Denny said he would give her a Corvette when she turned 16 and got her drivers license. And so, he did! But Diana had her own ideas about cars, and she didn’t want it! It had an automatic transmission, and she wanted a stick-shift! So, Denny got her a 1969 Camaro with a stick-shift, painted it a fingernail polish red, and he kept the Corvette!

Denny did go back to school to get his GED “just in case” he said. He bought different service stations, closer to home in Florissant, but in 1973 he “saw the handwriting on the wall” that service stations would soon be food marts with self-serve gasoline pumps. So, he sold the shell station in Florissant on Lindbergh and bought his own auto repair shop on Pershall Road in Ferguson. In 1980 he expanded to do body work and had a new building built. He was very successful as an auto body/auto repairman. All the while, building street rods as a hobby and racing cars at Alton Dragway.

Denny had received Jesus as his Lord and Savior at the age of 8 or 9 but got away from church as a teenager. In the spring of 2006, his health failed, and he rededicated his life to Christ. He went into a nursing home with dementia and other problems, then another nursing home and finally in 2013 he entered Garden View Care Center near our house and Diana’s home. He had Parkinson’s disease by then. He had the peace of God and contentment for the remainder of his life, which came to a peaceful end on earth Wednesday, October 7^th at 5:30am holding the hand of the wife of his youth. At that next moment he was “absent from his body and present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8) with his parents and brothers welcoming him. God blessed him with 78 years and 8 months on earth. Denny leaves to cherish his memory his beloved Ruth Ann, daughter Diana, son-in-law Jerry, grandchildren Ben, Kevin and Leanna Zelle, sister Ruth Ann Benson (William), brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, Aunt Dot Fox, and many nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, great great nieces and nephews, cousins and friends.

Memorial contributions may be made in Dennis' name to Parkinson's Foundation.