Clifford Eldon Blighton 1922-1981

BLIGHTON, MEYER, GEITZENAUER, JOHNSON, SMITH, NELSON, KERN, MILLER, REINDERS

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 11/27/2011 at 22:55:25

Clifford Blighton
Estherville – Services for Clifford [Eldon] Blighton, 59, will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday in St. Patrick’s Catholic Church with Father Albert Grendler officiating. Interment will be in the church cemetery with military graveside rites. He died Thursday [October 1, 1981] in the Veterans Hospital in Sioux Falls.

Friends may call at the Fuhrman Funeral Home after 2 p.m. Sunday. Rosary will be recited at 7:30 Sunday evening in the Fuhrman Chapel.

He was born June 10, 1922 at Ayrshire, Ia., the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Blighton. He attended and graduated from the Emmetsburg schools. On Dec. 18, 1946 he was united in marriage to Arlene Meyer at Fairmont. The couple farmed near Graettinger until 1966. He was a salesman and mechanic for Ken Krause Motors in Emmetsburg, after which he was employed as a carpenter by the Olson-Thu Construction Company of Graettinger.

Mr. Blighton was a member and past commander of the Nelson-Christensen American Legion Post 162 of Graettinger; member of John W. Brawford Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3388 of Estherville; past school board member in Palo Alto County; St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.

He served four years with the navy in the South Pacific in World War Two.

He is survived by his wife, Arlene, Estherville; one son, Richard Blighton, Belton, So. Car.; three daughters, Mrs. Dennis (Janeice) Geitzenauer, Gilmore City, Mrs. Ronald (Cindy) Johnson, Storm Lake, Mrs. Pat (Shelly) Smith, Emmetsburg; seven grandchildren; four sisters, Mrs. Clarence (Thelma) Nelson, Wallingford, Mrs. Derwood (Dode) Kern, Spirit Lake, Mrs. Gene (Betty) Miller, Emmetsburg, Mrs. Fred (Dorothy) Reinders, Treynor; and one brother, Ernest (Stub) Blighton, Gilman.

He was preceded in death by his parents, one brother and one sister. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, October 2, 1981)