Oscar C. Bencke Rumph - 1907-1986

BENCKEBENKE, NAVARRO, RUMPH, BEEBE, MCGEOUGH, LASSER, MCDONALD

Posted By: Connie Ellis (email)
Date: 2/14/2011 at 16:15:17

SOURCE: Waukon, Iowa WAUKON REPUBLICAN-STANDARD, January 6, 1987
Contributor: Connie Ellis (Not related)

Oscar C.Rumph, age 79, of Waterloo, Iowa, died Monday, December 29, 1986 at Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo. Services were held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 31 at Chapel of Memories with burial in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Oscar was born March 5, 1907 in New York City, New York to Conrad and Maria (Navarro) Benke *as listed in the obituary, however, in other information about Oscar it is spelled BENCKE* He was orphaned in 1913 and adopted in Iowa by John and Edna (Beebe) Rumph after arriving on an orphan train. On June 7, 1932 he married Jeanne McGeough in Waukon, Iowa. She died September 1955. He married Mrs. Sara Lasser on January 17, 1960 in Moline, Illinois. He had lived in the Waterloo area since 1940 and worked for Deere and Company and as an independent building contractor. He retired as a building inspector for the city of Waterloo.

He was preceded in death by his natural parents, his adoptive parents, his first wife, Jeanne, and an adopted sister, Erma Rumph, who was also an Orphan Train child.

He is survived by his wife, Sara; a son William Donald Rumph of Dixon, Illinois; a daughter, Joan McDonald of Sauk Centre, Minnesota; 2 step-sons, Thomas B. Lasser of Corsicana, Texas and David Lasser, who is in the Navy; 6 grandchildren, 2 step-grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Note of the transcriber:

Oscar C. Rumph was with a group of orphan train children who arrived in Waukon, Iowa on Thursday, November 13, 1913. In his later years, Oscar still had in his possession, carefully framed, the advertising bill that appeared in the Waukon, Iowa newspaper for that eventful day in his life and about 15 other children who came to Iowa from New York on that particular day.

If you are interested in The Orphan Train, refer to the Allamakee County section of Miscellaneous information under People.