Don Malcolm Westerfield was born at home, Nov 27, 1932, in Hazel Park (a suburb of Detroit), Michigan, to Don and Margaret Westerfield, and grew up in the southeast Michigan area, along with his older sister, Norma (Burdick). His father was a manager in the Ford Rouge auto plant in Dearborn, and Don, like many kids his age, loved to work on cars. But while his buddies were working to make their cars faster and louder, Don said that he wanted to make his cars faster and quieter. His interest in auto mechanics served him well when, following his dad’s premature death in 1953, he enlisted in the US Army.  Don served at Ladd Air Force Base in Fairbanks, AL, assigned to work in the motor pool keeping the vehicles on base in good working order.  

Meanwhile, Don and Edythe had met in Detroit, fell in love, and he gave her an engagement ring on her eighteenth birthday in 1953, just before he left for duty in Alaska. She was in nursing school at Harper Hospital in Detroit.  They married that July, and following one of his military leaves the next year, she had to drop out of nursing school when she became pregnant. In December 1954, she flew to Alaska to join Don and give birth to their first child (Lois) at the Air Force Base hospital where he was stationed.  She and baby flew home a few weeks later, where she stayed with her parents in Detroit until Don finished his military obligation.  They rented a little apartment in Detroit, and Don got a job working on the assembly line at Cadillac Motor Car Division, on Clark Street, in Detroit. They soon settled into suburban life, bought a home in Garden City, Michigan, had 2 more kids (Pam and Rosalie), and later bought a larger home in Sterling Heights, Michigan just before baby number 4 (Don) arrived in 1963.  Don worked full time at Cadillac, and on the weekends, worked at a Standard gas station to help make.     

SERVICES: 

Funeral service will be at Hughes Funeral Home, 26209 Pollard Road, Daphne, AL, at 1:00 PM, Wednesday, December 30,2020. Family will receive friends beginning at 12:00 PM until time of service. 

Expressions of condolence for the family may be made at www.hughesfh.com.  Hughes Funeral Home, 26209 Pollard Road, Daphne, AL, is handling service arrangements for the family