Redding, Merle “Mike” – 1920-1997

HARVEY, KALER, KNAPP, MATHES, MEINDERTSMA, NEIGHBORS, REDDING, TONDL, UEDING

Posted By: Diana Wagner
Date: 6/17/2021 at 19:00:17

Funeral services for Merle “Mike” Redding, 76, of Knoxville, who died October 7, at the Knoxville Area Community Hospital, were held October 11, 1997 at the Evans-McCleery Funeral Home in Knoxville. Burial will be at Graceland Cemetery in Knoxville at a later date. The Rev. Martha Ward officiated at the services. Military honors were accorded by Baty-Tucker Post #168, American Legion, and John Myers Post #3519, Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Mike was born November 3, 1920 in Burt County, Neb., the son of Glen E. and Lydia Knapp Redding. He graduated from high school in Decatur, Neb., in 1938. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1941 to 1945, attaining the rank of sergeant. In the South Pacific, he served in the initial landings of Guadalcanal and Tarawa, Gilbert Islands, and in the Saipan and Tinian operations.
He was united in marriage to Joyce Nadine Mathes on December 30, 1947 in Nashua. He was employed as an outside plant engineer for a series of telephone companies in Mediapolis, Carthage, Ill., New London, and Chariton. The couple moved to Knoxville in 1971, and he retired from Contel Telephone in 1982, after 33 years of service in the business. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Knoxville, and the American Legion in Chariton.
He was preceded in death by his parents; a brother, Peanie; and two sisters, Lois Neighbors and Edith Tondl.
He is survived by his wife of Knoxville; three daughters, Jan Redding of Boulder, Colo., Ellen Kaler of Marysville, Mo., and Susan Meindertsma of San Clemente, Calif.; two brothers, Charlie of Decatur, Neb., and Whitey of Warrenton, Mo.; four sisters, Esther Redding of Council Bluffs, Alice Harvey of Dade City, Fla., Doris Ueding of Onawa, and Opal Neighbors of Council Bluffs; and three grandchildren.
Memorials may be made to the First United Methodist Church Radio Ministry, and the South Marion County Unit of the American Cancer Society.
Arrangements were made by Evans-McCleery Funeral Home in Knoxville.
Source: Journal-Express (Knoxville, IA); October 17, 1997, page 8B