Alvin Kenneth Wyborny was born April 24, 1914, in Mason City, Iowa, to Lulu Witham Wyborny and Edward Frank Wyborny.
He was second-youngest of five brothers in this family of farmers.
When Ken was a boy, school was quite different from what it is today. For instance, most children didn't wear shoes to school in the warm
months. Shoes were for the rich kids. There were no school buses, and children had a long walk to school. Ken had a way around that, though.
He sometimes rode the family's old mare to school, bareback. When he arrived at school, he would jump down and slap the horse on the rump,
sending her home on her own. As a child, Ken was an avid reader. He stayed inside and read so much that he became anemic. Worried for his
health, his mother sometimes took away his books to get him to go outside for work or play.
A marriage as a young man left him with a precious gift, his eldest son, Ron, born in 1935. During this time, Ken worked for Collins Radio,
in Cedar Rapids, IA, and later joined Lockheed Corporation, in California, installing forward machine guns on military aircraft.
In April of 1942, he enlisted in the US Navy and served until November, 1945, seeing action in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. While
in Palermo, Sicily, he received a special award for running electrical service from the ship to shore, in order to power the sick bay
as well as the ship's company theater, enabling servicemen to briefly escape the rigors of war by watching movies.
Before he shipped out, he was sent to Oklahoma for special training. There, he met a petite redhead, Edna Virginia Taylor. They married
after the war, in February of 1946. Their son, Wendell, was born in the spring of 1947, weighing over nine-and-a-half pounds. Three years
later, they added another son, Keith, to the family. He weighed in at over eight pounds. Family and friends were amazed that a woman as tiny
as Edna managed to produce two such big babies.
During the first years after the war, Ken owned a radio, television, and appliance business near Lake Charles, LA. Later, he worked
for Chance Vought Aircraft Company. In the 1960s, he became a manufacturer's representative for Kenwood Electronics, a business he
maintained until he retired.
Ken was also a pilot. At different times, he owned several Cessna aircraft, using them for both business and pleasure. Two of his sons,
Ron and Wendell, followed in his footsteps, becoming pilots, also.
Retirement did not slow him. After moving to the Malakoff area, he began installing satellite dishes for families around Cedar Creek Lake.
He installed his last satellite systems at ninety, still climbing towers and rooftops. At ninety-one, he and Edna moved to Houston to be
near his son, Wendell.
In addition to his three sons and their wives, he leaves behind four grandsons, Chris, Bryan, Dana, and Darin, their wives, and five
great-grandchildren.
For his church, in business, and for his family, Ken Wyborny was an ace trouble-shooter and problem-solver. There was no challenge he could
not overcome except Parkinson's Disease. Yet even the Parkinson's had a hard time defeating him. Despite this debilitating disease, he made
ninety-six years and 7 months.