George W.

Vassaur

George W. Vassaur, 78, of West Plains, Missouri, died peacefully November 7, 2026.

He was born April 30, 1948, at Davis Hospital in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the son of William Ruel "Spud" Vassaur and Eunice R. (Hoover) Vassaur, and was raised at Altheimer in Jefferson County. As a boy he was a member of Boy Scout Troop 240 and was elected to the Order of the Arrow at Camp Quapaw, only the second Altheimer scout ever to receive that honor.

He graduated from Altheimer High School in 1966, attended Ouachita Baptist University, and received his degree from Arkansas A&M College at Monticello, now the University of Arkansas at Monticello in 1971. On April 13, 1968, he married Diana Ellis in North Little Rock, and they had two children, Cheryl and George.

He spent his career in hospital finance. He began at Blue Cross in North Little Rock and served as controller at Stuttgart Memorial before coming to Mountain Home, Arkansas, in 1978, where he was Chief Financial Officer of Baxter Regional Medical Center. His work later took him to Miami, Pensacola, and Baton Rouge before he settled in West Plains, joining Ozarks Medical Center and later working as a realtor with Vantage Real Estate Group.

He joined the Elks in 1983 and was a member for more than forty years, latterly of West Plains Lodge No. 2418. It was at the lodge that he met Kathryn Anne "Kathy" Warden, who was tending bar. They married in Mountain Home on September 25, 1983, and were together until her death in 2021.

He was a devoted Razorback fan and a lifelong follower of NASCAR. He and Kathy traveled the country in their motorhome and cruised with friends. He loved to cook, and his barbecue was the thing people remembered. He appreciated a good red wine, a glass of scotch, and the occasional cigar. And he loved his Labradors, Beau and CeeGee.

In his last years he lived with Lewy body dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

What people remembered most, though, was how he treated them. In his last months, every nurse and every doctor who cared for him remarked on how kind and pleasant he was, no matter how hard the day. That was true of him his whole life.

He was preceded in death by his parents and by his wife, Kathy.

He is survived by his daughter, Cheryl Lea Vassaur, and her partner Daniel Bertch, of Holladay, Utah; his son, George W. Vassaur Jr., and his wife Stephanie, of Fayetteville, Arkansas; his older brother, Jerry Vassaur, of Hot Springs Village, Arkansas; his grandsons, William Vassaur and Isak Rask; and his step-granddaughter, Laken Edwards.

At his request he was cremated. A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, November 14, 2026, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at West Plains Elks Lodge No. 2418, with a service at 3:30 p.m., where the lodge will conduct its own ceremony. A marker will be placed at Graves Cemetery in New Blaine, Arkansas, among six generations of his family.

Memorial contributions may be made to The West Plains Regional Animal Shelter, and may be left at or mailed to Robertson-Drago Funeral Home, 211 W. Main St., West Plains, Missouri.