Sinner’s (Paint and Body Shop) celebrates 70th anniversary

Lloyd Sinner graduated from Culbertson High School in 1951. In 1953, Lloyd and his father, Ed Sinner, packed up their belongings into the back of a 1-ton pickup and headed west to Wauneta to launch a body shop business.
Lloyd says that they chose Wauneta because Art Carmody—a Nebraska State Senator from 1941-1955—said that two of the best towns in Nebraska to start a business were Wauneta and Ogallala.
Sinner recalls that him and his father took a trip to Ogallala with hopes of finding a place to start their business only to find a “very well run body shop” and they figured they didn’t want to step on any toes. Wauneta was already fairly familiar and they liked the community. So, they rented a small shop and started their body shop.
Sinner spent the next couple of years helping to run the business. It wasn’t always easy and they found that there were definitely challenges that came with owning a business.
Then, in 1956, he was drafted into military service. He spent two years in the Army—starting active duty on Aug. 15, 1956. He served at Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Virginia. While serving, Sinner was part of the crew responsible for the maintenance of various trucks and vehicles.
Sinner finished his active duty service in 1958 but remained in the Army Reserves for another 4 years.
His time in the Army working on the maintenance crew inspired Sinner to go into the towing and wrecking business. He says that he wasn’t home for a month before he bought his first wrecker.
Around the same time, Lloyd and his father moved from their original shop to a building on the north end of Main Street. They were there until 1963 when they moved their business to its current location. Sinner’s continued to add on to their building, first in 1980 and then again in 1989. In 2001, Sinner added a building to house some of their wreckers just off the highway east of Wauneta. Most recently, they put up their second building east of town.
While being a prominent business owner, Sinner was also an active participant in his community. He says that he has “served on just about every board there is”. Sinner jokes that the first time he ran for Wauneta’s Village Board he only got 15 votes. This wasn’t the case for long and he would go on to serve as a member of the Village of Wauneta Board from 1991 to 2016. In that time he was elected to both the Vice Chairman and Chairman positions. Sinner says that he has been honored to serve on each board and committee that he has and has loved helping out his community.
In the past, Sinner has been celebrated as the Grand Marshall for both the Chase County Fair and Wauneta’s Harvest Festival.
Sinner assisted his community by being a member of the Wauneta Volunteer Fire Department from 1958 until 2004. He was Fire Chief from 1961 to 1988 and was voted Fireman of the Year in 2003. Even today, he helps out the current crew and offers advice when he can.
Today, Sinner’s Paint and Body Shop is the only large wrecker service in the area and respond to service calls all over. In addition, they repair vehicles, do alignments, repair frames, and polish semi truck wheels.
Lloyd recently celebrated his 90th birthday and is looking toward the future of Sinner’s Paint and Body Shop.