GRAVES, Ralph 1907-1965

GRAVES, LAUFER

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 9/28/2015 at 19:48:15

Large Attendance At Ralph Graves Funeral Saturday

Ralph A. Graves died in the Grundy hospital about 8:30 Wednesday evening. An hour earlier he was stricken with a heart attack while seated in the living room at his home. He was taken to the hospital as soon as possible and died shortly after he reached the hospital. He had been in good health up to the time he was stricken. He was 57 years old.

The body was taken to the Engelkes funeral home where funeral arrangements were made. Services were at First Presby. church at 2 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Burial was in the Grundy Center cemetery. The service, conducted by Rev. Duane Heap, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Grundy Center, was very largely attended. Pallbearers and honorary pallbearers were the church elders.

Mr. Graves was born on a farm in Lincoln township, Grundy county, September 7, 1907. He was a son of Mr. and Mrs. John Graves. He spent his youth on a Grundy county farm and two years in South Dakota, following which the family moved to Grundy Center. He graduated from Grundy Center high school with the class of 1926.

On September 26, 1932, Ralph Graves and Mary Agnes Laufer were married in Grundy Center. They resided on a farm a short time after their marriage, after which he accepted the job of driver for the Waterloo Laundry for about three years. After that he was employed for 11 years in the D-X gas station. He was a veteran of World War II, having served in the U.S. Army for two years. He was employed 20 years by Beu & Sons Company in Grundy Center, and later by the Marietta Company while they maintained an office in Grundy Center. After the office was closed here, he remained with the company as manager of a quarry at Eagle Center in Black Hawk county.

Ralph Graves was a member of the American Legion, had served a term as church trustee, and was an elder in the church at the time of his death.

Surviving are the wife, one sister, Mrs. Robert Finlayson, Indianapolis, Ind., and a niece, Betty Laufer, who has been making her home with the Graves family. Preceding him in death were an infant daughter and a brother, John, who was killed in an auto accident in 1930, and his parents.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 24 June 1965, pg 1, 8