Gene L. Waite - Obituary

Gene L. Waite, 73, of Sidney, NE, passed away in the comfort of his home surrounded by his family on Friday, September 27, 2019.

A celebration of life service will be held at 10:00 AM, Friday, October 4th at the Sidney First United Methodist Church, 2622 11th Avenue, Sidney, NE with Pastor Corey Jenkins and Jim Yahn officiating. Graveside services will follow at Greenwood Cemetery, 2 Greenwood Road, Sidney, NE, with lunch served soon after at the Gehrig-Stitt event center 1212 10th Avenue, Sidney. Friends can visit the Gehrig-Stitt Chapel, 1140 10th Avenue, Sidney, on Thursday, October 3rd from 1-7 PM with the family present from 4-6 P.M. Memorial contributions may be made in Gene's name to Cabela's Kid's Fishing Day in care of Janet Lienemann; Cabela's Retail Store, 115 Cabela Drive, Sidney, NE 69162 or the Cheyenne County Fair Board, P.O. Box 511, Sidney, NE 69162.

Gene was born January 7, 1946 in Sterling, CO to Floyd and Catherine (Jackson) Waite. He graduated from Iliff High School in 1964 and began an extraordinary career journey. Gene's career began with Sterling Redi-Mix and Stickney's before shifting into a sales career with Coca-Cola Bottling in Sterling, 1965 - 1981. Gene's life-long goal was to be self-employed. In 1980, at the age of 34, he purchased his first business in Sidney, the Ranch Motel and then added two laundromats. In 1982, he became a route salesman for Sunrise Dairy (Meadow Gold Dairy) and in 1983 he purchased the business and began his own independent distributorship for Meadow Gold, Little Debbie, Sandhills Water and Rocky Mountain Potato Chips. In 1999, he attempted retirement for the first time. Retirement was short lived and in 2000 he began a second career with Cabela's where he worked in the special order, government and outside sales departments. In 2015, he tried retirement for a second time and later that year he went back to work as a Dairy Manager for Wal-Mart. In 2016, he went to work for the Sidney Public Schools until 2017 when he finally settled into retirement.

Gene is survived by his wife, Racquel (Frerichs); brother, Pat Waite and his wife Carrie and their son, Tyler Marshall; daughter, Marti (Waite) Hall and her husband, Terry of Oklahoma City, OK; son, Rich Waite of Denver, CO; daughter, Tammi (Waite) Maberry of El Reno, OK preceded him in death; and son, Michael Waite and wife Donielle of Albuquerque, NM; step-daughter, Gretchen Spitz of Kimball, NE; Racquel's sons, Ethan Kraus, Zane Lineback and Freeman Lineback. Gene had six grandchildren: Alicia and Andy Waite (Rich's daughter and son); Caitlin Bludworth (Marti's daughter); and Dalton Sosa, Dakota and Dylan Fikes (Tammi's sons) and two great-grandsons: Tuff and Stetson Sosa.