Kenneth Albert Wootten

March 12, 1948 - Monday, October 4, 2021

Kenneth Wootten, Sr was born in March of 1948 to Albert and Winifred Wootten in upstate New York. After graduating high school in 1967 he had a brief stint at Ulster Community College before joining the US Air Force in 1968. Ken served his country in Vietnam and shortly thereafter met and married Robin. Together they had 2 children, Kenneth Jr and Jennifer. In 1985, Ken was transferred from Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, CA to Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, SD. After honorably retiring from the Air Force, in 1989, he took on many jobs such as a piano salesman, sleep tech, and respiratory therapy. In his spare time, when he wasn’t singing baritone in a barbershop quartet, he enjoyed anything that had to do with God’s creation. Be it staring at the stars, hunting for rocks and finding their hidden beauty, fishing, snowmobiling and 4-wheeling through the Black Hills, and so much more. One of his favorite pastimes was to grab his camera, point, and shoot. He always wanted to capture as much as he could. In 2015, he relocated to Chowchilla, CA to live with his brother and be a lot closer to his kids and grandkids. By living nearby, he was finally able to visit regularly, attend birthdays and holidays, and go to church, where he attended Gateway Community Church in Merced, CA. This past summer, Ken chose to spend several weeks on a solo cross-country roadtrip where he was able to reconnect with many friends and family, including his two sisters with whom he spent a month visiting in New York State. Ken is preceded in death by his parents, his nephew Wayne Wootten, nieces Shannon McGann, Robin Wootten (Mitchell) and Sherri Wootten (Lockhart), and one grandchild. Ken is survived by his son Kenneth (Charlene) Wootten of Merced, CA; daughter Jennifer (Craig) Fleming of Winton, CA; brother Douglas Wootten of Chowchilla, CA; sister Pamela (Charles) Pane of New Paltz, NY; sister Aline (Bobbi Shutts) McGann of Hampton, NY; 5 nephews and nieces; and 9 grandchildren.