Herald staff
WALLA WALLA — William "Kenneth" McCandless, one of few surviving World War I veterans in Washington state, died Sunday. He was 102.
McCandless was an avid bowler until the age of 100. Late-night talk show host David Letterman once made a request to have McCandless on his show, but the centenarian wasn’t interested.
McCandless was born on March 23, 1898, in Horton, Kan.
He was a young man studying journalism at the University of Nebraska when the United States declared war in 1917. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy.
McCandless was an editor at the Omaha World Herald for 11 years. He moved to Walla Walla in 1945 to work for the Pacific Northwest Cooperator, a regional farming publication.
He is survived by a daughter, Sylvia Inoue of Falmouth Mass.; a son, Michael Wever McCandless of Hastings, England; five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
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