SCARFF, Orel Ralph, 1903-1928

SCARFF, FICKEL, GRABER, LATTA, WATTS

Posted By: Betty Hootman (email)
Date: 2/12/2012 at 13:41:30

Mount Pleasant (IA) News
Page 2
30 October 1928

FUNERAL OF OREL SCARFF HELD SUNDAY

Between five and six hundred people gathered at Benjamin Chapel, Richwoods, Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock, to attend the funeral of Orel Ralph Scarff whose untimely death cast a pall of gloom over the whole community. He passed away, after a brave fight for life, on October 26, 1928. He was a son of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Scarff, and was born on a farm in Marion township, Henry county, Iowa, about four miles northwest of Mt. Pleasant, September 29, 1903. He grew to manhood in his native neighborhood, and on October 29, 1924, he was united in marriage to Miss Ethel Fickel, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Will Fickel. Two children came to make happy their hearts. They are Melvin Wayne and Marvin Orel Scarff, who, with their grief stricken mother, remain to feel the loss of a loving husband and father. He leaves to mourn, besides his young wife and children, his father and mother, one brother, Mark Scarff, four sisters, Mrs. Olive Graber and Mrs. Bessie Latta, of near Trenton, Iowa, and Hazel and Imo at home. Mark also resides at home. His aged grandmother, Mrs. Mary Scarff, Rome, Iowa, one niece and one nephew, Marjorie and Harold Watts, and a host of friends and relatives also survive.

Pastor Frank Weston of the First Baptist church, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, conducted the funeral services and preached the sermon from I John 4:8, "God is Love." Messrs, Lowrey Wells, Andrew Wormhoudt, Sebastine Skipton and Frank Weston, with Mrs. U. S. G. Williams as accompanist, sang "Walking With Thee," "Some Sweet Day," and "The Beautiful Land." Very many flowers spoke of the love and esteem in which the fine young man was held, and also the sympathy of hundreds of friends for his sorrowing loved ones. Clyde Ensminger, Charles and Roy Swailes, Roy Scarff, and Earl and Harlan Harper carried the casket to the grave in beautiful Richwoods cemetery. The surviving relatives have many who weep with them in the great loss which they have sustained.