Wessels, Roger P. 1933 - 2003

WESSELS, MANDT

Posted By: Pat Ludeke (email)
Date: 5/20/2013 at 15:53:42

ROGER P. WESSELS
CLEAR LAKE — Roger P Wessels, 70, of Clear Lake, died Saturday (July 26, 2003) at the Muse Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit in Mason City.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at the First Congregational Church, 205 10th Ave N., Clear Lake, with the Rev. Thomas Healey officiating. Interment will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Graceland Cemetery, Buffalo Center.
Visitation will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, 101 N. Fourth St. Military honors will be held at the cemetery.
Memorials may be given to the First Congregational Church in his name.
Roger was born Feb. 2, 1933, at Buffalo Center, Iowa, the son of Guy and Tillie (Geerdes) Wessels. He attended elementary school at Buffalo Center and graduated from Clear Lake High School in 1950.
Roger was in the Army during the Korean War and served from April 27, 1953, until April 27, 1955.
He married Lucille Mandt on June 3, 1957, in Sioux Falls, S.D.
They made their first home in Mason City, but moved to Clear Lake in 1958. Early in their marriage Roger worked for Frozen Foods in Mason City and managed the Lake Theatre in Clear Lake until he started driving for various truck lines in about 1963.
Roger and Lucille started X-Size Ladies Fashions in 1967 in Clear Lake, later expanding the business into six stores in Iowa, four in Minnesota and two in Missouri. They gradually closed the X-Size stores in the 1980s, the final being the Clear Lake shop in 1985.
Roger had started driving for FFM in 1982, and retired in about 1995. He then drove part-time for Wessels Transport, and started a vending machine business and trailer sign rental business with Lucille.
He was a long-time member of First Congregational Church in Clear Lake.
He is survived by three daughters, Diana Silverstein, of Aurora, Colo., Linda Rausch and her husband, Larry, of Omaha, Neb. and their children, Eugene and Jerry, and Trudy Thomas and her husband, Wesley, of Lakewood, Colo. and their children, Rena and Zachary; two sons, Gene Lytle and his wife, Jeannie, of Lakewood, Colo. and their son, Jamie, and Roger G Wessels and his wife, Denise, of Omaha, Neb. and one brother, Larry Wessels of Lakewood, Colo., and three nephews, Daniel Wessels of Lakewood, Colo., Don Wessels of Arvada, Colo. and Todd Wessels of Littleton, Colo. and their wives and children.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Lucille.
Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, (641) 357-2193.