Charles Akins
NEVADA, Mo. - Charles Clyde Akins, 86, Nevada, died at 10:45 p.m. Saturday, March 22, 1997, at Nevada Regional Medical Center of natural causes.
Mr. Akins was born Nov. 18, 1911, in Bates County.
He was a member of Disabled American Veterans No. 14 and Blue Mound Grange No. 2230, both of Nevada.
He served in the Army in Europe during World War II.
He worked 30 years at Nevada State Hospital, retiring in 1977.
He married Mary Louzetta Mistler on May 3, 1941, at Harrisonville. She survives.
Additional survivors include a son, Harvey Akins, of the home; and a sister, Nola Nadine Welch, Nevada.
Graveside services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Balltown Cemetery at Horton.
The Rev. Loren Fox will officiate.
Friends may call until 2 p.m. Tuesday at Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada.
Gary Corum
SARCOXIE, Mo. - Gary Lee Corum, 37, Grain Valley, a former Sarcoxie rsident, died at 1:24 a.m. Sunday, March 23, 1996, from injuries he received in a one-vehicle accident one mile south of Sarcoxie.
Mr. Corum was born March 13, 1960, at Monett.
He had lived in the Sarcoxie and LaRussell areas until 1991, when he moved to Grain Valley.
He attended Sarcoxie High School and the Electronic Institute at Longview for one year.
He worked at St. Mary's Hospital in Blue Springs as a chief technician of the kidney dialysis unit for six years.
He attended the Christian Church at Independence and was a member of Missouri National Guard from 1977 to 1994.
He married Dorothy Greenwood on Feb. 16, 1991, at Miami, Okla. She survives.
Additional survivors include a stepdaughter, Isa Greenwood, Carthage; his mother, Louretta Corum, LaRussell; four brothers, Boyd E. Corum Jr., Wichita, Kan., Bill Corum, and Bob Corum, both of Sarcoxie, and Steve Corum, Joplin; three sisters, Kaye Smith, Carthage, Judy Seymour, Tulsa, Okla., and Becky Massey, Sarcoxie; and a stepgrandchild.
Arrangements are pending with Housh Funeral Home, Sarcoxie.
Bud Griffith Jr.
NEVADA, Mo. - Bud Griffith Jr., 68, Nevada, died Saturday, March 22, 1997, at St. Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, after a short illness.
Mr. Griffith was born Feb. 7, 1929, in Cooper County, near Blackwater.
He lived in Kansas City for 40 years.
He worked 42 years for Kansas City Power and Light Company and as a real estate department manager.
After retiring in 1990, he moved to Nevada.
He was a senior member of the International Right of Way Association.
He was a member of the Quarter Century Club of the Kansas City Power and Light Company, Bethel United Church of Christ at North Kansas City, East Gate Masonic Lodge of Kansas City, and Nevada Elks Lodge.
He married Patsy E. Geary on April 8, 1951, at Nevada. She survives.
Additional survivors include three daughters, Kim Moore, Columbia, Rebecca Blake and Marlisa Livesay, both of Grapevine, Texas; four sisters, Ella Widel and Earlene Davis, both of Blackwater, Ruby Kammeyer, Marshall, and Sue Rinne, Arrow Rock; and four grandchildren.
Services will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada.
The Rev. William Cox will officiate.
Burial will be in Newton Burial Park.
Contributions may be made to American Lung Association.
Opal Irwin
AURORA, Mo. - Opal Irwin, 94, Aurora, died at 3:59 p.m. Saturday, March 22, 1997, at Aurora Community Hospital after a long illness.
Mrs. Irwin was born Oct. 9, 1902, at Aurora.
She retired in 1977 after working 52 years as bookkeeper at the Aurora Advertiser.
She was a member of First Presbyterian Church.
She married Charles Irwin on Feb. 22, 1936. He died in 1970.
She has no immediate survivors.
Graveside services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Maple Park Cemetery, Aurora.
The family will receive friends from 1 to 2 p.m. Tuesday at Crafton-Cantrell Funeral Home, Aurora.
Contributions may be made to First Presbyterian Church.
James Pendley
LAMAR, Mo. - James Auston Pendley, 50, Amazonia, a former Lamar resident, died at 7 p.m. Friday, March 21, 1997, at Heartland Regional Medical Center, St. Joseph, after an illness.
Mr. Pendley was born Sept. 5, 1946, at Berry, Ala.
He had lived in Lamar for nine years before moving to Amazonia three months ago.
He was a truck driver for several firms, most recently driving for M&X; Trucking, St. Joseph.
He had been a cook at Blue Top Cafe and a forklift operator for O'Sullivan Industries, both in Lamar.
He also had worked in the maintenance department of Nevada (Mo.) Hospital.
He was a Navy veteran of the Vietnam War.
Survivors include two daughters, Sherri Lynn Nicholas, El Dorado Springs, and Robin Hughes, Nixa; his stepfather, Willie Pendley, Pleasant Hill; five sisters, Margaret Tabor, El Dorado Springs, Frances Mooney, Amazonia, Mary Ann Harmon, Smithville, Texas, Brenda Kay English, Grandbury, Texas, and Ada Richards, Lamar; and two grandchildren.
Graveside services will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Memory Gardens Cemetery, Lamar. Fred Bobe will officiate.
The family will receive friends from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Lohmeyer-Konantz Funeral Home, Lamar.
Pallbearers will be Gregory Tabor, Billy Mooney, Troy Nicholas, Thomas Harmon, Darren Hughes and Louis Grieme.
Contributions may be made to American Cancer Society.
Walter Rakoski
MONETT, Mo. - Walter Rakoski, 88, Monett route 2, died at 1:50 a.m. Sunday, March 23, 1997, at St. John's Regional Medical Center, Joplin, after a short illness.
Mr. Rakoski was born Feb. 14, 1909, in Barry County.
He was a lifetime rural Monett resident and a retired farmer.
He was a member of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church at Pulaskifield, southwest of Monett.
He married Clara Stipp on Aug. 4, 1936, at Pulaskifield. She died Jan. 15, 1992.
Survivors include three daughters, Freda Blinzler, Joplin, Mary Ann Campbell, Pierce City, and Bernice Head, Neosho; a brother, Stanley Rakoski, Kansas City, Kan.; a sister, Rose Trussler, Kansas City, Mo.; 13 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; and a stepgrandchild.
Funeral Mass will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church.
The Rev. David Miller will officiate.
Burial will be in St. Peter and Paul Church Cemetery.
Rosary will be said at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Wessell Funeral Home, Pierce City, where visitation will follow.
Joseph Shields
CARTHAGE, Mo. - Joseph R. Shields, 68, 1002 Fulton St., died at 9 a.m. Sunday, March 23, 1997 at McCune-Brooks Hospital, where he had been a patient for one day, after several months of ill health.
Mr. Shields was born Jan. 8, 1929, at Sidney, Mont.
He moved to Carthage in 1973 from Montana.
He was a retired truck driver, last working for Fairview Greenhouse in Carthage.
He was an Army veteran of the Korean War.
He married Ruby Ruth on Oct. 6, 1977, at Miami, Okla. She survives.
Additional survivors include three sons, Justin Shields and Jesse Shields, both of Neosho, and Douglas Shields, Key West, Fla.; two brothers, Raymond Shields, Perry, Okla., and Eddie Shields, Joplin; two sisters, Susie Totter, Ukiah, Calif., and Shirley Spry, Carthage route 6; and two grandchildren.
Arrangements are pending with Knell Mortuary.
