Sheldon Ripson (died 1974)

RIPSON, MCGEEN, ROSENBAUM, SMULL

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 11/13/2022 at 07:35:05

4 April 1974 - The Tipton Conservative

Results of a ballistics test being conducted at the crime laboratory in Des Moines will be needed to make certain that the 20 guage shotgun found near the body of Sheldon Ripson, 66, was the cause of what Sheriff Dick Hancock called an apparent suicide.

The body of Ripson, prominent Farmington township farmer and cattle feeder, was found in a machine shed on his farm by Roy Adams and Herb Deering, hired hands, at 9:15 a.m. April 2.

Dr. Marlene Wager, Durant, was at the scene when Cedar county sheriff's officers arrived and pronounced him dead. Death was believed caused by the discharge of a 20 guage shotgun.

The shotgun, an over-and-under double-barrel weapon, was found near the body and there was a note on the body.

Private services for Ripson will be held at 1:30 p.m. today (April 4) at the Fairbanks Lamb Chapel, Muscatine. Burial will be in the Durant cemetery.

Ripson was born in Muscatine and married Edna McGeen at Davenport in 1935. He had farmed in Farmington township for many years where he was a large landowner.

He is survived by his wife, a son, Dean, Durant; 5 grandchildren; 2 sisters, Mrs. Helen Rosenbaum, Davenport and Mrs. Eleanor Smull, Arizona and a brother, Ralph, Durant.