H0109

The study's number for this person. Cite it and it will always lead here, whatever the spelling.

· A life in the study

Donald Leonard Whitener

Born in 1923.

born about 1923

Donald Leonard Whitener was a son of the Rev. Sterling W. Whitener and Marie A. Hegnauer, missionaries in China. According to the family tree he was born on 1 July 1923.¹ His elder brother, Sterling Hegnauer Whitener, had been born in China in 1921, and Donald was probably born there too.² Early in 1927 the family was "driven out by the hostilities in China", and at the end of March "Rev. Whitner and family" were staying with his mother's parents at Rockville, Missouri.³ Nothing more about Donald has yet been found.

What we know

Proven

Birth, 1923

What's still open

Nothing the notes flag. Which is not the same as nothing left to find.

Sources

Source 1

1 Hegnauer/Putt family tree, Ancestry.com, 1923

Source 2

2 Sterling Whitener, 2017

Source 3

3 Appleton City Journal, 1927

Family

Father Sterling Wilfong Whitener 1894–1950 Mother Marie A. Hegnauer 1900–bef. 1957

This page Donald Leonard Whitener b. c. 1923

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The evidence 1 facts with their grades, 3 sources, and the research notes

Facts

Fact	Date	Place	Grade	Sources
Birth	about 1923		proven	1 , 3

Research notes

Sources: Only the family tree names him, with a birth date and his parents but no source.¹ The 1927 newspaper item (read on the page) mentions "Rev. Whitner and family" without naming the children.³
Living status: He is treated as deceased under the study's 100-year rule, because the family tree gives his birth in 1923. No death record has been found (a web search on 27 Sep 2026 found none). If a record shows him to have been born after Sep 1926, this must be revisited.
Earlier treatment: Until 27 Sep 2026 he was treated as living (a private profile), because his birth year rested on the family tree only.
To find: the family in the 1930 and 1940 censuses (North Carolina or wherever his father then served); his brother Sterling's obituary (Greensboro News & Record, Feb 2017), which may name him among surviving or deceased siblings; the Social Security Death Index and state death indexes for Donald L. Whitener, born 1923.
This profile is part of the Hegnauer one-name study, as a grandson of Christian Hegnauer.

Working notes

Treated as deceased under the study's 100-year rule (b. 1923); no death record found yet (web search 2026-09-27)
Tree's 1 Jul 1923 is a lead

Sources

1

Hegnauer/Putt family tree, Ancestry.com, tree person 102706139955, Donald Leonard Whitener: born 1 July 1923 (no place and no source), son of Sterling Wilfong Whitener and Marie A. Hegnauer.
2

"Sterling Whitener," notice of death published by Global Ministries, 9 February 2017 (globalministries.org/sterling_whitener): his brother Sterling Hegnauer Whitener was born on 27 June 1921 in China to missionary parents; accessed 27 September 2026.
3

"Rockville Department," Appleton City Journal (Appleton City, Missouri), 31 March 1927, p. 6: "Rev. Whitner and family have returned from China where they were missionaries, and are at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Chris Hegnauer. They were driven out by the hostilities in China."; image, Newspapers.com (newspapers.com/image/863945723).