Carlson, Ronald K. 1923-1987

CARLSON

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, volunteer (email)
Date: 6/20/2008 at 13:57:55

Ronald K. Carlson, 63, of LeMars, manager of Uncle Sam’s Cut Rate service station, Highway 75 north, and former station manager for Benson Oil in Sioux City, died Saturday (March 7, 1987) at a Sioux City hospital of injuries suffered in a fire Feb. 11 at his home in LeMars.

He had managed the LeMars station the last nine years.

Known to many LeMars residents as Uncle Sam, he was injured when a blaze started in an overstuffed chair in his apartment after he apparently fell asleep, officials say.

Carlson lived in an apartment above the KD Corral, a LeMars tavern.

Fire department officials said Carlson apparently had tried to escape through a fire exit in his apartment but was overcome with smoke.

LeMars firemen recalled this was the first death as the result of a house fire in LeMars within the last 20 years.

Funeral will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Christy Morningside Funeral Home at Sioux City. Rev. Karl Lutner, chaplain of Countryside Retirement Home, will officiate.

Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery at Sioux City. There will be no visitation at the funeral home.

Mr. Carlson was born March 26, 1923, at Spink, S.D. He was raised in South Dakota and moved to Sioux City in 1927. He was station manager for Benson Oil Co., formerly located at East End Service Station in Morningside.

Mr. Carlson was a member of Monahan Post 64, American Legion, Sioux City; Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4537 and Fraternal Order of Eagles Chapter 1381, both of LeMars. He was a Navy veteran of World War II.

Survivors are his mother, Mrs. Lena Carlson, of Sioux City; a brother, Jules of Sergeant Bluff and a sister, Mrs. Alvina Hursha, of Van Nuys, Calif.

~Source: LeMars Sentinel newspaper, part of the D. Easton Obituary Collection