Wilbourn Isaac McNutt

Mr. Wilbourn Isaac McNutt, former journalist and a resident of Shreveport for the last 48 years, died Thursday, October 10, 2019. Graveside services will be conducted at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at Forest Park West Cemetery. Wilbourn was born June 22, 1921 in Deridder, LA to Nicholas James and Elizabeth Daniel McNutt. Later the family moved to Beaumont, TX where Wilbourn graduated from high school in 1939. Finding no work near home, he hitchhiked to San Antonio and enlisted in the Army Air Corps on the day that Hitler invaded Poland. He had dreamed of flying since his older brother had treated him to a $5.00 plane ride when he was a boy, but spent his first months in the service performing meteorological duties. Following Pearl Harbor, he was finally allowed to enter pilot training and received his wings at Kelly Field in San Antonio, TX. He was assigned to a troop carrier that flew C-47s, often towing gliders with paratroopers, dropping them in different locations in Europe during WWII. Following the war, Wilbourn earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Missouri using funding provided by the "GI Bill." He then found work in Texas at the Denison Herald. He met his wife, Anna Margaret Bengel, while working there. They married in 1949 and later moved to Temple and then Waco. Wilbourn worked for the Waco Times-Herald and in 1959 received a Sloan Rockefeller Foundation fellowship to study science writing at Columbia University in New York City. He was employed as a science writer by the University of Texas News and Information Service in Austin, TX and by World Book Encyclopedia in Houston, TX prior to coming to Shreveport in 1970 to take over the position of City Editor of the Shreveport Times. He resigned from this post and became a freelance journalist after the paper was purchased by the Gannett Corporation. Will devoted many years to teaching the Wicks Sunday School Class at Christ UMC. He also enjoyed many hobbies including hunting and fishing, walking along the railroad tracks, gardening, wine, bread and cheese making, photography, and woodworking. He loved to dance and listen to music and his family recalls him singing old honky-tonk songs. He found great joy in his grandchildren. They were married in 1949. Margaret preceded him in death in 2004. He was also preceded by his parents and by his four siblings, Thelma, Howard, B.D., and Elizabeth. His is survived by: Dr. James Charles McNutt and wife Laura of Austin, TX; Margaret Ann McNutt and husband Robert Cotner of Blanchard, OK; and Cynthia Jane Rodriguez and husband Dr. Juan Rodriguez of Saint Louis, MO; and four grandchildren: Matthew McNutt, his wife Karley, and their son Caleb of Los Angeles, CA; Nicholas McNutt and wife Tracey of Towson, MD; Dr. Carl Rodriguez of Boston, MA; and Eliza Rodriguez of Seattle, WA. He also leaves two nephews: Dan and Dolph McNutt of Florida. The family wishes to thank the staff of The Glen facilities in Shreveport where Wilbourn resided for the last nine years, and also the staff of Lifepath Hospice Care Services for their loving and attentive support.