Dennis Butler

Dennis Butler, 73, of Gothenburg, Nebraska, passed away at Kearney Regional Medical Center on October 20th 2022.

Denny was born on Feb 2nd, 1949 to Carl and Betty Butler of Gothenburg, NE.  In fact, he was born during the blizzard of 49, where when his mother's water broke, his Dad had to drive to Gothenburg in the storm from south of Gothenburg, to where I think he was born over Potters Drug Store.

Denny's Dad, Carl, was an American cowboy who broke horses and was a champion calf roper and bull dogger where he worked as a ranch hand, where Denny's best years were spent on the Haythorn Ranch north of Maxwell, where he went to grade school in Brady, NE.  Then in 1960, his dad decided to leave ranching and feeding 400 head of cattle during some of the worst weather in Nebraska to get into construction and heavy equipment, building the interstate highway system and Corp of engineer damns during the early 60s.  So this meant that Denny's family moved quite a bit following the work. Denny graduated from Dorrance Rural High School of Dorrance, KS in 1967, and in 1968 he was drafted into the Army where after basic training was assigned to the 1st Air Calvary. In 1969, he was sent to Vietnam outside of Siagon where he was assigned to the motor pool as a truck driver and saw no serious action.  After a year he returned to the states and in December of 1970 he was released from the service with an honorable discharge.

Denny had missed the period of the American Hippy of the late 60s but still grew his hair long until his death.  That first year Denny hitch hiked all over the western US and a year later settled down and got a job constructing steel tanks in Texas along with his brother Doug.  Then he naturally migrated back to his childhood home of Gothenburg where he spent his later years working as a welder and then cutting alfalfa for Greg Oldham until his unfortunate death.  He was so proud of his last Big Green Machine that was equipped with GPS technology.

Denny was preceded in death by his dad Carl Butler, sisters Linda Swanson and Cindy Johnson and later his mother Betty Butler.  He is survived by his oldest brother Rick Butler and younger brother Doug Butler as well as niece Deanne Morton, and her daughters Brooke and Bailey and nephew Kevin Casper.

Denny loved to fish as well as hunt, but fishing was his passion where he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread over several of his favorite fishing spots, no services will be held.

He will certainly be missed by his family and friends