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LABETTE COUNTY, KANSAS OBITUARIES
ALEXANDER, GRAPLE Obit: Graple Alexander Miss Graple Alexander, a former resident of Parsons, died Friday in a Topeka hospital where she underwent surgery for a brain tumor. She was 58 years old. Miss Alexander went to Topeka from Parsons 11 years ago and was employed as a social worker for the Shawnee County social welfare department. She was born on July 15, 1913, in Jackson, Tenn., and came to Parsons with her family at the age of three. She attended schools, being graduated from Parsons High School with the class of 1931. She was present for a reunion of the class held here on the 4th of July weekend. Miss Alexander was a member of the Washington Avenue United Methodist Church here. Her only immediate survivor is a cousin, Mary P. Barron of Wichita, also a former Parsons resident. Her body is being taken to Jackson, Tenn., for burial alongside her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Alexander. Services will be held there at 2 p.m. Monday at the Lanier Funeral Home. The Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home of Topeka was in charge of arrangements there. (Parsons Sun, submitted by Freda Webb) BARNARD, EDWARD LEWIS At Parsons, Kansas, April 10, Edward Lewis Barnard, 67, a native of the state of New York, formerly a resident of Henry and one of its earlier settlers. (Henry Republican, April 29, 1880, submitted by Nancy Piper) BROOKER, EARL E. Surviving are his wife; a son, Terry of the home; three daughters, Mrs. Judy Miller of Columbia, Mo., Pamela and Becky both of the home; his father, A. J. Brooker, of Fort Scott; five brothers, Clyde and Pat, both of Fort Scott, Bill of Coffeyville, George of Pittsburg, and Richard of Siloam Springs Ark., seven sisters, Mrs. Oral Lyons of Arco, Idaho, Mrs. Frieda Clark of Fulton, Kan., Mrs. Ellen Thiebaud of Parsons, Mrs. Virginia Dobyns of Mission, Kan., Mrs. Louise Rasmussen of South Gate, Calif., Mrs. Ruth Harrison of Kirkwood, Mo., and Mrs. Marilyn Minor of Fort Scott. A memorial in Mr. Brooker’s name has been established with the Cassoday Methodist Church. (El Dorado Times, December 4, 1967) HOOPER, F. H. MRS. A Roscoe Lady Dead Roscoe, July 18, (Special) - Mrs. F. H. Hooper died today at one o'clock. Friends at Parsons, Kansas were telegraphed for but failed to reach here before she died. (Aberdeen Daily News, July 19, 1887, Page 1) HOPKINS, ALFRED D. Obit: ALFRED D. HOPKINS CHERRYVALE - Alfred D. Hopkins, 59, a former resident of the Dennis and Parsons area died Aug 16, 1983 in Indonesia. He was employed by the Mobil Oil Corp. of Dallas. Graveside services will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Harmony Grove Cemetery near Dennis, with the Rev. Sam Storkson, pastor of the Church of the Nazarene, officiating. Interment will be directed by the Darling and Burns Chapel. The casket has been closed. The family will receive friends at the chapel at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Alfred Dale Hopkins was born May 5, 1924 at Parsons to Alfred and Bessie (Bryson) Hopkins. He attended schools at Dennis and later graduated from Labette county Community College and Kansas State University. He served in the Armed Forces from 1943 until 1946. Mr. Hopkins started his career with Mobil in 1951 in Wichita and had served as pipeline manager for on-shore and off-shore drilling interests in Libya and Saudi Arabia. At the time of his death, he was manager of pipeline construction in Sumatra, Indonesia. He was a member of Highland Christian Church in Dallas, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and had been active in Boy Scout work for 20 years. In 1949 he was married to Helen Lutz, who survives. Also surviving are four sons, Howard, Robert and Jim, all of Dallas and Neil of Oklahoma City; his mother, Mrs. Bessie Hopkins of Parsons; and a brother, Wayne of Borger, Texas. (Independence Reporter, submitted by Freda Webb) HOPKINS, WAYNE F. Obit: WAYNE F. HOPKINS BORGER, TEX. Wayne F. Hopkins, 67, of Borger, Texas, died Monday, July 5, 1993 at Amarillo, Texas. He was born Sept 26, 1925 at Parsons to Alfred and Bessie (Bryson) Hopkins. He moved to Borger in 1952 from Pittsburg. Mr. Hopkins was employed at the Phillips Petroleum Co. polymer plant for 33 years, retiring in 1985. He was a member of the United Brethren Church in Dennis, Kan. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Forece. Survivors include his wife, Loyce of the home; a son, Sidney of Portland, Texas; two daughters, Pamela Vaculin of West Des Moines, Iowa, and Camille Hooper of Houston; and three grandchildren. A memorial service was today at the Fritch Church of the Nazarene, Fritch Texas. The Memorial Park Funeral Home of Amarillo had charge of arrangements. The family will be at the home of Jeanne Heit in Dennis Friday. Private interment at the Harmony Grove Cemetery. (Submitted by Freda Webb) JONES, LLOYD W. Overland Park, Ks. -- Lloyd W. Jones, 92 of Overland Park, a former Parsons resident, died early Monday morning Nov. 6, 1995 at the American Health-Care Center of Overland Park. He was born April 1, 1903 at Severy, Ks. to Willam and Nellie Banta Jones. As a young child, he moved with his family to the Parsons and Dennis area. He spent his school years with his grandfather, James D. Jones, who was a former sherrif in the early 1900's. He attended schools in Parsons and received a law degree from the University of Oklahoma. In 1923, he entered the Oklahoma Bar Association. He was member of the Kansas and Texas Bar associations, becoming a 50 year member of all three. In 1924, he was employed in the claims department of the Katy Railroad. In 1946, he became the railroad's general attorney for Kansas. In 1957, he became the company's general attorney and moved to Dennison, Texas and then to Dallas in 1964. He retired in 1969 and lived in Dallas until returning to Parsons in 1982. He moved to Overland Park in 1989. Mr. Jones was a member of the Wesley United Methodist Church in Parsons. He had belonged to Rotary clubs in the various communities where he lived. He belonged to the Greater Dallas Rotary Chorus, which performed at International Rotary meetings. He also was a Paul Harris Fellow. Mr. Jones was a member of the Parsons Historical Society and had been active in the Republican party. He married Edith Makemson, daughter of Charles T. & Anna Maher Makemson, on May 3, 1924 in Parsons. They were both descendants of early Labette and Neosho county pioneer families. She died May 8, 1963 at Parsons. He married Doris Embry in July 1964 at Denison, Texas. She survives of the home. Other survivors include a son and a daughter; six grandchildren; five grgrandchildren; and a half-sister, Gladys Poindexter of Trenton, Neb. The service will be at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Carson-Wall Funeral Home of Parsons with the Rev. J. C. Kelley, Jr. officiating. Burial will be in Oakwood Cemetery. (Parsons Sun Newspaper, November 9, 1995, submitted by Ann Baughman) JONES, LLOYD W. MRS. Mrs. Lloyd W. Jones, 59, of Denison, Tx., wife of a general attorney for the Katy railroad, died at a Parsons, Ks. hospital Wednesday at 6:25 pm after more than six months of illiness. Funeral services will be held Friday at 4 pm at the First Methodist Church in Parsons, with the Blossom Funeral Home in charge. Burial will be at Parsons- Oakwood Cemetery Mrs. Jones was in the hospital here several times before she was taken to Parsons late last fall. The home here is at 1525 West Main. The family came to Denison in 1957 when Katy offices were consolidated here. Mr. Jones was Katy attorney for Kansas at Parsons prior to that. Formerly Edith Makemson, daughter of Charles Thomas and Anna Maher Makemson, was born at Neosho Co., Ks., June 8, 1903. She and Mr. Jones were married May 3, 1924 and lived at Muskogee, Oklahoma as well as Parsons before coming to Denison. Mrs. Jones was a member of Waples Methodist Church here and was active in its WSCS work. She was a member of the Garden Clubs in both Denison and Parsons. Her husband is the newly elected president of the Rotary Club. Aside from her husband, she is survived by one son in Illinois; a daughter in Kansas City, Ks.; her mother Mrs. Anna Makemson, Parsons; one brother, Howard Makemson, Neosho Co.; a sister, Mrs. Mildred Low, Coffeyville; and six grandchildren. (Denison Herald, May 9, 1963, Denison, Texas, submitted by Ann Baughman) KING, CHARLES CHARLES KING MURDERED Murder committed at Katy oil house last evening Body discovered at 10:50 Skull fractured, body dragged to to the Basement and the Building Set on Fire. The most fiendish murder ever committed in Parsons, was commited last night, when Charles King, an Englishman, and foreman of the Katy oil house, his skull fractured, and a rope put around his neck and the body dragged into the basement, all turned out on one of the tanks and the building set on fire. The rope found around the dead man's neck was a bell cord cut from an engine standing in the yards. Just what time the murder occurred is not known, but it is presumed that it happened about six o'clock. King worked from 7 o'clock in the evening, and one of the Katy employees says he saw King at ten minutes to six, and another says he saw him the last time about two minutes to 6. Robbery was unquestionably the motive of the crime. King failed to go home to supper, and a telephone message started some of the railroad emplyees to looking for him. The fire was discovered about 8 o'clock but the fire department subdued the flames, and it was not until more than two hours after that time that the body was discovered in the basement of the oil house. King had twenty-five dollars and the amount of his pay check in his possession at the time, and when the body was found one of the pockets had been turned inside out and the money was missing, showing that robbery was the motive of the crime. Coroner Hamlin was summoned from Oswego and today a coroner's jury was impannelled and an inquest is being held at the office of Justice of the Peace D. A. Coate. King came to Parsons when the Katy officers were removed to Parsons from Sedalia. Later he conducted a restaurant in this city. For the past fifteen years, he has been foreman of the oil house. He was a quiet, inoffensive citizen. From the manner in which the murder was committed it is thought that the deed was committed by more than one man, and it is hoped that the murderer or murderers will be speedily brought to justice. The coroner's jury adjourned to view the remains of the murdered man at the undertaking establishment of the Gregory-Kersey company. (Submitted by Ann Baughman) LOLLAR, J. M. HEART ATTACT IS FATAL FOR KATY AGENT IN LABETTE J. M. Lollar, of Labette, agent for the M.K.T. at that place was found dead by Edgar Barrier, a grain buyer, when he entered the depot about 11:30 o'clock. Mr. Lollar's death resulted from a heart attack. He went to his work in the morning in apparently good health, and had been handling the work of his office as usual during the morning. He sat at his desk to read the morning Republican and when found he still held the paper in his hands. Mr. Lollar was 68 at his death. He had been agent in Chetopa a number of years and was transferred to Labette, where he has been agent the past six or seven years. He is survived by his wife and two daughters, who live in Chetopa, and by a son who lives in Oswego. The body will be taken to Chetopa for burial. (Death notice of a Katy employee - from MKT Association News, October 1927, submitted by Ann Baughman) REYNOLDS, GEORGE A. A PROMINENT DEMOCRAT GONE Washington, July 6 - Major George A. Reynolds of
Parsons, Kansas, died in this city, this afternoon, after a brief illness. Major Reynolds was a prominent politician
in his state, an ex-member of the democratic state central committee, and was at one time connected with the Missouri,
Kansas and Texas Railroad. (Milwaukee Journal of Commerce, July 7, 1880, page 3) Frances June Thomas, was born to Clarence and Ethel Hamsher on August 5, 1931 in Parsons, Kansas, and died on November 29, 2003 at the age of 72. She taught elementary school for over 20 years and continued to substitute teach even after retiring. She loved teaching children how to read. She was a docent at the Publishing Museum and volunteered her time to delivering mobile meals to shut-ins in Guthrie, Oklahoma. She also volunteered her time to Habitat for Humanity, helping build houses in Mexico and in Oklahoma. She participated in several Friendship Force trips, which included traveling to many countries, such as Cuba, Russia, China, Germany and France, and working in several orphanages while in Poland and Romania. She served on the Election Board and helped with many elections in town. She served on the Grand Jury in Oklahoma City for a year and felt this was a responsibility that every citizen should have. She showed her loved of reading by belonging to the Friends of the Library, and belonged to a reading club as well. She was devoted to her religion and her church and felt great comfort from them. Her greatest enjoyment in life was being "Grandma Great". This was a title her great grandson, Tyler Porter, gave her when he was born and continued when her second great grandson, Noah Raza was born. They were the apples of her eye. Spending time with them was one of the most important things in her life. She is survived by her children, Ann Bucci of Ortanna,
Pennsylvania, Debra Thomas of Des Moines, Iowa, Carolyn Hall of Guthrie, Oklahoma, John Thomas of Des Moines, Iowa,
and Nathan Thomas of Reading, Pennsylvania; her grandchildren, Laura Porter and Amy Hall of Guthrie, Oklahoma,
Gwen Slaughter of New York, and Megan Slaughter of Wisconsin; and her great grandchildren, Tyler Porter and Noah
Raza of Guthrie, Oklahoma; her sisters, Wilma Jean Correll, Ethel Fox; brothers, Robert, Bill, Carl and Eugene
Hamsher. Her parents, two infant brothers, her sisters, Leona Herrin Ferguson, Florence McDill, Irene Caddo, and
brother, John Hamsher precede her in death. |
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