CRAM, Duane Bodwell

CRAM, GILBERT, RAPP, GARTMAN, STUTZ, SPENCER, COLTON, LEASE, CASTLEBERRY, HUNTER, BRUCE

Posted By: Lynette Edsall (email)
Date: 9/26/2006 at 10:45:07

DUANE CRAM

Duane Bodwell Cram was born on January 29, 1916, the son of Ralph and Hazel (Bodwell) Cram in Parker, South Dakota. He grew up on a farm and graduated from Parker High School. He moved to Aurelia with his parents in 1932, and opened his first business, an automotive repair shop. He married Margery A. Gilbert on August 30, 1941, in Cherokee, Iowa. They raised three daughters, and were married for nearly 48 years, until her death from cancer in 1989. Except for his service in the US Navy during WWII, they lived most of those years in Aurelia. He served on the Aurelia City Council, Aurelia Fire Department, and Aurelia School Board and as Mayor of Aurelia. He was a member of the Aurelia American Legion, and a charter member of the Quimby Lions Club. Duane opened another shop, Cram’s Repair, upon his return from military service in 1945. He also owned and operated Cram’s Standard, until he sold that business to work for Simonsen’s in Quimby in 1967. In the mid-1970’s, he and Marge built a new home in Quimby. He retired in 1983. In 1990 he married Gladyce Rapp and moved back to Aurelia. She died in 1998. He moved to the Sunset Knoll Retirement Home in Aurelia in the summer of 2001.

Duane died Tuesday, August 12, 2003, at the Sioux Valley Memorial Hospital in Cherokee following a brief illness.

Preceding Duane in death were his parents, his first wife, Marge, his second wife, Gladyce, and a sister-in-law, Frances Gartman.

Survivors include his three daughters and sons-in-law; Jackie and Bill Stutz of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, Lona Cram and Michael Lease of Littleton, Colorado, and Patty and Phil Spencer of Meriden, Iowa, six grandchildren, Scott and Sheryl Stutz, Marty and Gail Stutz, Becky and Ted Colton, Ryan Lease, Jennifer Spencer, and Lisa Spencer, two great-grandsons, four great-granddaughters, and one sister-in-law, Shirley and Jerry Castleberry of Warren, Arizona. Also surviving are five stepchildren and their spouses, Kenneth and Merna Rapp, Darrell and Roberta Rapp, and Terry and Susan Rapp, Susan and Dayton Hunter, and Joleen and Jerry Bruce, 15 step-grandchildren, and 29 step-great-grandchildren.