Charles DuWayne Mead of Lawrence, Kansas, died Sunday Feb. 9, 2025, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital surrounded by family. He was born April 7, 1936, to Oliver Abner and Clara Mae Mead in Cherokee, Kansas. He grew up with his four siblings on East 13th Street in Pittsburg, Kansas, and graduated from Pittsburg High School, where he was a star athlete, in 1954.