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Joyce Craft
MARION - Joyce Lee Craft, 62, of Marion, died Sept. 16, 1998, at Wichita Specialty Hospital.
Services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Monday at Marion Christian Church. The Rev. John Yates will officiate. Burial will be at 4:30 p.m. Monday in Latham Cemetery.
Friends may call at Zeiner Funeral Home, 205 Elm, Marion, from 1 to 8 p.m. Sunday.
Craft was born Aug. 16, 1936, near Latham, to C.B. and Velva Ruth (Bolte) Price. On June 27, 1954, she married Norman Craft in Latham.
A homemaker, she was also former deputy clerk of the district court in Clay Center. She had lived in Marion since l991 and was a member of Marion Christian Church.
Survivors include her husband, Norman Craft, Marion; two sons, Steve Craft, Mukwonago, Wis., and Robert Craft, Marion; her father, C.B. Price, La Feria, Texas; a brother, Larry Price, Latham; a sister, Connie Brown, Augusta; and five grandchildren.
Odessa Kropp
LAKIN - Odessa Kropp, 100, of Lakin, formerly of Winfield, died Sept. 19, 1998, at Kearny County Hospital in Lakin.
Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Garnand Funeral Home in Lakin. Burial will be in Highland Cemetery
at Winfield.
Friends may call at the funeral home until 8 tonight and from 9 a.m. to service time Tuesday.
A memorial has been established with the High Plains Retirement Village. Contributions can be made through the funeral home.
Kropp was born Oct. 3, 1897, in Winfield, to Andrew F. and Edith L. (Norris) Kropp. She was baptized into the Lutheran faith.
While a young girl, she worked as a night telephone operator. She and her brother, Vernon, started working at Dawson Monument Co. and later became its owners. She, along with her brother and her mother, invested in land in western Kansas during the Depression. She managed their farming interests in Kearny, Hamilton, Wichita and Greeley counties.
Kropp had lived in Winfield until moving to Lakin in 1982.
There are no survivors.
Marie Yates
GROVE, Okla. - Sylvia Marie Yates, 81, of Grove, formerly of Sedan and Wauneta, died Sept. 19, 1998, at Grove General Hospital.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Round Mound Cemetery
near Wauneta. Pastor David Talle will officiate. Zimmerman Funeral Home of Howard is in charge of arrangements.
A memorial has been established with the American Cancer Society.
Yates was born Oct. 15, 1916, in Howard, to George William and Mary Jane (Alderson) Myers. Her father died when she was 14, and she was raised by her mother and stepfather, George Nix. She attended school in Grenola and Piedmont and graduated from Piedmont High School. She then taught for three years in rural schools in Elk and Greenwood counties.
On June 1, 1937, she married Thomas Raymond Yates in Grenola. They lived in Wichita until moving to a farm northeast of Howard in 1945. In 1958 they moved to Wauneta where they owned and operated a grocery store and service station until 1968. She was employed for several years as a certified medical aide at Terrace Gardens Nursing Center in Wichita.
In 1981, the Yateses retired and moved to Sedan. Her husband died April 26, 1983 Yates moved to Grove in 1991.
Survivors include three sons, Don Yates, Plymouth, Wash., Larry Yates, Grove, and Robert Yates, Huffman, Texas; two daughters, Sharon Scrimager, Sedgwick, and Linda Hall, Winfield; two sisters, Mary Roach, Wichita, and Phyllis Knabe, Golden, Colo.; 22 grandchildren, 44 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
Draven Whitley
Draven Michael "Bright Eyes" Whitley, 2 months, son of Robert and Christy (English) Whitley, died Sept. 17, 1998, in Winfield.
Services were held at 10 a.m. Sept. 21 at Rindt-Erdman Funeral Home in Arkansas City. Burial was in Highland Cemetery
in Winfield.
Draven was born July 12, 1998, in Arkansas City.
Survivors include his parents, Robert and Christy Whitley, Winfield; a stepbrother, Kyle; a stepsister, Brianna; and his grandparents, Bob and Twyla Whitley, Braman, Okla., and Ron and Jana Ragan, Winfield.
Robert Billings
ARKANSAS CITY - Robert B. Billings, 51, of Arkansas City, died Sept. 20, 1998, at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus in Wichita.
Services will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Hawks Funeral Home. Burial will be in Parker Cemetery.
Friends may call at the funeral home until 8 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday.
A memorial has been established with the Paralyzed Veterans Association. Contributions can be made through the funeral home.
Billings was born Jan. 20, 1947, in Lincoln, Mass., to James and Marion (Bridgman) Billings. He was raised in Concord, Mass., where he graduated from high school. He later attended Wentworth Institute and graduated from Northeastern University in Boston.
During the the Vietnam War he served in the U.S. Army.
On June 27, 1977, he married Rose F. Fleming. They lived in Newberry, Mass., until moving to Arkansas City in 1991. Billings had been with General Electric for over 22 years and was an engineer at Strother Field.
He was a member of the Elfun Society and Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Survivors include his wife, Rose Billings, a son, Paul James Billings, and a daughter, Jaclyn Rose Billings, all of Arkansas City; his mother, Marion Billings, Cambridge, Mass.; two brothers, Chris Billings, Marion, Mass., and Ben Billings, New Mexico; and a sister, Rachel Trobaugh, Racine, Wis.
Obert Kruger
HOOPER, Neb. - The Rev. Obert W.F. Kruger, 92, a longtime Winfield resident and former St. John's College professor, of Hooper, died Sept. 19, 1998, at Hooper Care Center.
Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Fremont, Neb. The Rev. David Loeschen will officiate. Graveside services will be at 12:30 p.m. in St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, Arlington, Neb. Moser Memorial Chapel, Fremont, is in charge of arrangements.
A memorial has been established with St. John's Alumni Education Foundation in Winfield.
Kruger was born March 11, 1906, on a farm near Arlington, Neb., to Frank C. and Amanda (Scheer) Kruger. He attended schools near Arlington before entering St. John's Academy and College in Winfield in 1920. He attended three years of high school and three years of college there and graduated in 1927. He graduated from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in 1930 and received a master's degree from Colorado State College of Education in Greeley in 1949.
He did additional graduate work at the University of Colorado, University of Minnesota and University of Kansas.
On Sept. 1, 1934, he married Ruth M. Deffner in Brookfield, Ill.
From 1930 to 1934 Kruger taught at Concordia College in St. Paul., Minn. In October 1934 he was ordained. He did mission work and canvassing in Davenport, Iowa, in 1934 and served as pastor of Immanual Lutheran Church there from 1934 to 1940.
From 1940 to 1980 he taught at St. John's College in Winfield. At various times he also served as coach, dean of students, academic dean and acting president. He retired from full-time work in 1972 but worked in various capacities part time until 1980. After that, he continued to work on records.
Kruger was instrumental in beginning the nurse's education program in conjunction with William Newton Memorial Hospital. In his honor, the area south of the central administration building on the St. John's campus was designated as Kruger Plaza.
He was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Fremont, Neb., and a former member of Winfield's Trinity Lutheran Church where he served as Sunday school superintendent, taught an adult Bible class and served on several boards and committees. He assisted in worship services at Trinity and also preached to many congregations in the Winfield area.
Kruger moved to Fremont three and a half years ago and had been a resident of the care center for two and a half years.
Survivors include his wife, Ruth Kruger, Hooper; two sons, Ralph Kruger, Colorado Springs, Colo., and the Rev. Roger Kruger, Omaha. Neb.; three daughters, Anita Schlecht, Sacramento, Calif., Mildred Fickenscher, Stockton, Calif., and Sylvia Storck, Denver; a sister, Edna Sommers, Fremont; a half-brother, Allan Goesling, Seattle; two half-sisters, Norma Goesling, Fremont, and Opal Schwidder, Seattle; 21 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Julie Smith
CHERRYVALE - Julie Ann Smith, 36, of Cherryvale, died Sept. 19, 1998, at her home.
Services will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Independence. Bishop Don Cragun will officiate. Inurnment will be in Greenwood Cemetery
at Sedan. Graves-Baird Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
A memorial has been established with the Children's Scholarship Fund. Contributions can be left at the funeral home or the First State Bank of Cherryvale.
Smith was born March 16, 1962, in Brawley, Calif., to Bennie and Jeana Faye (Spellins) Lane.
In 1980 she married Scott Prudhomme in Bartlesville, Okla. They later divorced.
On May 8, 1989, she married Doran Smith in Miami, Okla.
A homemaker, she was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Survivors include her husband, Doran Smith, a son, Elija Scott Prudhomme, and two daughters, Amanda Sue and Tara Lynne Prudhomme, all of Cherryvale; her father, Bennie Lane, Brawley, Calif.; and her mother and stepfather, Jeana and Ronald Pasley, and a brother, Bruce Anthony Lane, all of Sedan.
Beulah Waters
OXFORD - Beulah M. Waters, 92, of Oxford, died Sept. 21, 1998, at Sumner Regional Medical Center in Wellington.
Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Oliver-Hawks Funeral Home. Burial will be in Oxford Cemetery.
Friends may call at the funeral home from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and before the service Thursday.
A memorial has been established with Riverview Manor in Oxford. Contributions can be made through the funeral home.
Waters was born May 7, 1906, in Benton County, Ark., to John and Anna (Fulbright) McCauley. She graduated from Sallisaw (Okla.) High School and taught school prior to her marriage.
On March 6, 1926, she married Albert Waters Jr. in Sallisaw. They lived there until moving to Oxford in 1942. They later moved to Derby and then to Prague, Okla., where Waters worked at the Prague hospital. They returned to Oxford in 1983, and her husband died May 8, 1989.
Waters was a member of Maple Street Baptist Church in Oxford.
An infant daughter, Joan Waters, preceded her in death.
Survivors include two sons, Cleon Waters, Allentown, Pa., and John Waters, Chico, Calif.; two daughters, Bernice Wheeler, Oxford, and Clare Laizure, Prague; two brothers, John McCauley, DeQueen, Ark., and C.B. McCauley, Spokane, Wash.; nine grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
