Neil Higginbotham

HIGGINBOTHAM, LAUBACH, FOUTS

Posted By: Treva Patterson (email)
Date: 7/16/2006 at 16:21:39

Winterset Madisonian
January 7, 2004

Neil Higginbotham, Kansas

Neil H. Higginbotham, 65, of rural Lawrence, Kan., died Dec. 31, 2003, at his home.

Funeral services were held Saturday, Jan. 3, at Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence. Military graveside services followed at Eastview Cemetery near Big Springs, Kan.

Neil Higginbotham was born Oct. 15, 1938, in Independence, Mo. to Kenneth B. and Mildred O. (Laubach) Higginbotham. He attended grade school in Shreveport, La., and Scranton, Kan. He attended Highland Park, Junior High and was a 1956 graduate of Topeka High School. On March 5, 1961, he married Carol R. Fouts in Topeka, Kan. He lived in the Lawrence area since 1986, after residing for eight and one-half years in Winterset. Neil had worked as an audio man and announcer for WIBW from 1963 to 1970. He was then employed by Philco Ford, Dymo and Itek as an electronic engineer from 1970 to 1986 then worked for Jostens/American Yearbook before returning to WIBW TV. He also worked for Walsworth Publishing in Marceline, Mo., before returning to Itek. From September 1986 until his retirement on dec. 22, 2000, he worked for the Kansas Turnpike Authority as an electronic engineer. He was a veteran of the United States Navy, serving aboard the USS Kearsarge and USS Oriskany from June 1956 to September 1959. He also was a member of the Centenary United Methodist Church in Lawrence.

He is survived by his wife, Carol Higginbotham of Lawrence, Kan.; three sons, Major Kenneth Mark Higginbotham of Ft. Sill, Okla., David Neil Higginbotham of Bend, Ore., and Stephen James Higginbotham of Lawrence, Kan., a sister, Oneita L. Higginbotham of Braganca, Brazil; and six grandchildren.