Extracted from The Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, FL)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Joseph “Kermit” Wahl

Joseph “Kermit” Wahl, 95, of Lake Talquin, FL., a retired director with the Florida Department of Environmental Health, died Saturday, June 12, 2010, at the Margaret Dozier Hospice House in Tallahassee, Fla. He is survived by a daughter, Linda Wahl Smith (Nevins) of Tallahassee, FL. The service will be at 10 a.m. EDT Wednesday, June 16, 2010, at First Baptist Church of Quincy, with burial at Hillcrest Cemetery.

Family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. EDT today, June 15, 2010, at Independent Funeral Home in Quincy (850-875-1529). In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Rotary Youth Camp, 1801 Miccosukee Commons Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32308; First United Methodist Church Chattahoochee, 118 S. Main St., Chattahoochee, FL 32324; First Baptist Church, PO Box 70, Quincy, FL 32353, or Big Bend Hospice, Tallahassee, FL 32308.

Affectionately called Daddy, Granddaddy, Papoo and Bubba Kermit, a native of Freeport, FL, he left home at 16 to earn his way in the world and send money home. He worked for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Gadsden Co. Health Department. He married Elsie May Hamrick of Quincy in 1938, and they traveled the country with the USCGS until he enlisted in the Navy in World War II. He worshiped at First Baptist Church, Quincy for many yeas and more recently at the First United Methodist Church, Chattahoochee.

He was a member of the Pairs and Spares Sunday School Class, the Guy A. Race Friday Lunch Group of Quincy and the Wetumpka Volunteer Fire Department. Other survivors include three grandchildren, Carson, Leslie and May Smith, all of Tallahassee; and two nieces, Barbara Oberhultzer and Rita Poff, Pensacola.

The family wishes to thank the staff and volunteers of BB Hospice House and Magnolia House in Quincy for the love and care they have shown “Mr. Kermit” over these last weeks and years.