Kenneth Derald Wirsig, 87, of Urich, Missouri, passed away on September 21, 2026, at Meadow View Health and Rehab, Harrisonville, Missouri. Funeral services will be held at 11:00AM Monday, September 28,2026 at the Vansant-Mills Chapel, Clinton, Missouri. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service from 10:00-11:00AM. Interment will follow in Englewood Cemetery, Clinton, Missouri. Family suggest memorial contributions be made to Deepwater Labor Day Harvest Picnic and may be left in care of funeral home. Fond memories and condolences may be left online at www.vansant-millsfuneralhome.com.
Kenneth Derald “Ken” Wirsig, 87, originally of Deepwater, Missouri, left this world on September 21, 2026, and entered into the presence of the Lord.
Ken’s faith was personal and unassuming but deeply rooted. He knew the Bible remarkably well and could often recall a verse that fit the moment. He not only knew Scripture but had a way of explaining it in plain language that others could understand. His old pal Jimmy Phillips once told Ken that he ought to have been a preacher. Ken didn’t think he was much of a speaker, but his faith and his knowledge of God’s Word remained an enduring part of his life.
Ken was born September 16, 1939, to Clyde and Mildred Wirsig and was one of nine children raised on the family farm west of Deepwater, Missouri. He graduated from Deepwater High School in 1957. Ken liked to joke that he had been the best left-handed pitcher on the family baseball team — because he was the only left-handed pitcher.
Ken served in the National Guard from 1956 to 1961, attaining the rank of Sergeant (E-5). He liked to say that he had been “a cook during the war.” If someone asked which war, Ken would reply, “Well, there really wasn’t one.” He had trained as a cook at Fort Hood, Texas, during peacetime. Around that same time, he began another vocation that would follow him throughout nearly his entire working life: barbering.
After beginning as a barber in Deepwater, Ken moved to the Kansas City area and went on to work for Armco Steel for nearly two decades. It was through an Armco coworker that Ken was introduced to the man’s cousin, Eva Sharon Thompson. Ken and Sharon later married, and their union brought Ken his only son, John Paul.
Even while working at Armco, Ken continued barbering on weekends. After his years at Armco ended in the late 1980s, he went on to work for the Kansas City School District. In 1994, Ken returned home to Deepwater and to the old family homestead — his beloved “Ponderosa.” He later worked for Rival in Clinton for several years while continuing to cut hair, eventually returning more fully to barbering in Deepwater before his retirement. In that way, his working life came full circle: he began as a barber in Deepwater and ended as one there as well.
And according to Ken, he was not merely a barber. He was the best left-handed barber in Deepwater — a title that eventually evolved into the best left-handed, one-eyed barber in all of Deepwater, Missouri.
Ken was rarely content to stay in one place for very long. He was, quite simply, a man on the move. There was almost always someone to see, somewhere to go, an errand to run, or somebody who could use a hand.
For years, trips back to Deepwater meant visiting his parents, Mildred and Clyde, at the old family home. After Mildred’s health declined, Clyde cared for her there for several years. Ken’s visits often meant spending time with his mother in the front room and then sitting and talking with his father at the kitchen table. After Clyde’s death in 1986, Ken continued faithfully visiting Mildred after she entered nursing care, talking with her even when she could no longer clearly answer and encouraging his young son, John Paul, to talk with Grandma too.
There were visits with Ken’s brothers and sisters and their families, with countless hours spent simply sitting, talking, and catching up. Every Thanksgiving and Easter was spent with his sisters Carolyn, Linda, and Sharon, while many Sunday afternoons were spent with his brother Donald, drinking the morning’s cold leftover coffee. Two familiar parts of Ken’s routine were stopping by Hobson Interior to see his brother Richard and sister-in-law Sharlene, and spending hours around the body shops in Clinton visiting with Richard and longtime friend Jimmy Phillips.
Retirement did little to slow Ken down. If anything, it simply gave him more time to make his rounds.
Ken also treasured the friendships he made within the Amish community near Lowry City, particularly Elmer and his family. He visited often, provided rides when someone needed to get to an appointment, and made his cell phone available when they needed to make a call. Sometimes “Well, I’ve got to go see Elmer” was Ken’s way of announcing that one visit had ended because it was time to begin another.
Ken was never one to say “I love you” very often; more often, he showed it by what he did. Whether it was running an errand, hauling something, helping a friend out of a bind, or showing up with a new water heater when his son needed one, Ken had a way of being there. But new babies in the family could bring out a softer side of him. He would lean toward them and, in a high voice that family came to know well, greet them with, “Goochie, goochie, goo.”
Ken also always seemed to have another project in mind. Over the years there were Cushman scooters, old cars and, especially in later life, tractors — from a Farmall Cub and a Hinomoto to John Deere tractors. Some projects got finished. Others became part of the great collection of irons Ken perpetually kept in the fire. If there was an old machine somewhere that might be brought back to life, Ken was likely interested.
Ken was naturally funny, often without appearing to try. Friends, family, and even the nurses who cared for him came to know some of his favorite expressions. Surprising news might be answered with his familiar, “The hell you say?” And when a visit had gone on awhile, he might look at the time and say, “Well, if I would have left 45 minutes ago, I’d almost be back at the ranch by now.” Sometimes he would explain that he needed to get home and “feed the goats” — despite the minor detail that Ken did not actually own any goats. Another favorite line, usually delivered before disappearing down the hall, was, “I’ve got to go count my money.”
In his later years, Ken moved to Urich, Missouri, to live near his niece, Joanna Beth Holt. Beth welcomed Ken to make his home on her property and cared for her uncle with extraordinary love and devotion as his needs increased. Their relationship was marked by genuine love, and Beth became one of the most important people in the final years of his life.
Ken eventually made his home at Meadow View Health and Rehab, where residents and staff came to know and love his humor and unmistakable personality. When Ken left Meadow View for the final time, residents and staff lined the hallway to say goodbye, many reaching out to touch him as he passed — a fitting farewell for a man who had spent so much of his life making the rounds to see others.
Ken was preceded in death by his parents, Clyde and Mildred Wirsig; his brothers Donald, Marvin, Melvin, and Norman Wirsig; and his sister Carolyn Bodenhamer.
He is survived by his only son, John Paul Wirsig, and daughter-in-law, Jamie Michelle Wirsig; his grandsons, Robenton “Ben” Armand Wirsig (fiancée Paityn), Hyden Parker Wirsig (wife Kayla), and Reagan Delon Wirsig; his brother, Richard Wirsig; his sisters, Sharon Wirsig and Linda Wirsig; his beloved niece, Joanna Beth Holt; his dear friend, Jimmy Phillips; and many nieces, nephews, extended family members, and friends.
Ken had another familiar way of referring to death. When someone passed away, he would simply say that they had “left the country.” And so, in Ken’s own words, on September 21, 2026, he left the country.
Ken once joked that if there were ever something appropriate to put on his tombstone, it should be one simple piece of advice. It seems an equally fitting way to leave the last word to Ken himself:
“Don’t forget to check the oil.”
Visitation will be held Monday, September 28, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., with funeral services beginning at 11:00 a.m. at Vansant-Mills Funeral Home in Clinton, Missouri.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Vansant-Mills Funeral Home, in Clinton, Missouri.
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