Obituary of Wanna E. McCarthy

Wanna Earl Herring was born on October 11, 1927, in Georgetown, TX to Christina (Gibbs) Herring and John Robert Herring. She was the second child of four with her sister Kay Herring Gresham, the oldest, Robert Bryant, the next youngest after Wanna, and baby sister, Norris Gail Herring Wilson-Gaede. Wanna grew up in a farming and ranching family. As a child, she worked in the cotton fields with her other siblings, milked cows, tended chickens, and got up to all sorts of mischief with her little brother. Wanna was kind and giving, never forgetting her southern manners. She was implacable which gave her the strength to face the many life challenges that came her way. Wanna was quick with figures and because her mother was a school teacher, she also wrote well. She was set to graduate high school at sixteen when the family moved to Limon, Colorado the second semester of her senior year. She graduated from LHS in 1944 as WWII was still on the heart and minds of everyone in the country. Wanna’s first job was in Limon at Basket and Coburn Real Estate. She attended UNC in Greeley, graduating in business. She next moved to Denver, working for Standard Oil Company living off of Logan Street in downtown Denver. In 1950, Charles McCarthy, a WWII vet and recent graduate from DU Law School who purchased the theater in Limon with his brother-in-law, had seen Wanna at a distance from time to time as she visited her family. He promised Gail, Wanna’s little sister, free admission to the theater if she would introduce her sister to him. The rest is history; the two were married on March 22, 1951. Mac and Wanna bought out their brother-in-law and Wanna managed the theater for the next 32 years. The theater was open seven days a week with a Wednesday and Saturday matinee and all-day Sunday movies. Wanna loved every person and especially every child who came to the theater. She trained up many young ones to count back change and the etiquette of meeting the public. All of Wanna’s employees were like her own children. She cared about their lives and their families. Mac and Wana spent much of their marriage adventuring. If Mac could do something, Wanna was determined to do it better. They both became pilots. Wanna took her pilot’s test at nine months into her first pregnancy in a stick-steer plane, causing a new regulation for testing that no woman could test after the sixth month of pregnancy. The instructor questioned fate as Wanna maneuvered through the air trying her best not to let her baby bump get into the way of a safe touch down---it really was “touch and go”. Wanna and Mac loved fishing, hunting, golf, and cards. They did everything together except death. Mac found out he had cancer on April 14, 1982, and died May 14, 1982. Wanna remained alone for the next 39 years, traveling with her sister and friends throughout Europe and Mexico at least once a year. She enjoyed collecting coins and going to investment seminars with her friend and companion, John Craig, who passed in 2017. After selling the theater in 1982, Wanna took a short break before she began her second career managing the Tamarack Golf Course for 15 years, retiring in 1997. She built a golf cart empire while making everyone feel at home and welcome at the best little golf course on the Eastern Plains of Colorado. Together Mac and Wanna had three children, Jack Graham, Julie Anne, and Sharon Mary. They were a team. Mac worked all day coming home to a meal, then Wanna passed the baton while she went to work. It was a truly modern family in the 1960s with a married woman working, and it worked for Wanna and Mac. Wanna is preceded in death by her husband, Charles Earnest; Son, Jack Grahm, his wife Carol Ann, and their daughter Heather Lynn; sisters Kay and Gail; brother Robert; parents John Robert and Christina Olive. Wanna leaves grieving her daughter Julie Anne Hutmacher (husband Bob), grandsons Mark Hutmacher (wife Emily), Scott Hutmacher, granddaughter Laura Hutmacher; daughter Sharon Mary Hansen (husband Ross); grandson Reid Hansen (wife Kaitlyn) great-granddaughters Elowyn and Teaghan Hansen; granddaughter Turin O’Brien (husband Peter); niece Marsha Wilson (husband John Voden) and nephews Rob Wilson (Tonya), Don Wilson (Janet). In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to the Lincoln Theater Foundation, P.O. Box 9, Limon, CO 80828.