Hakes, Byron Arnold

HAKES, ALLEN, DOYEN

Posted By: Gayle P. Snow (email)
Date: 5/10/2024 at 18:54:54

Last rites for B. A. Hakes, former Laurens business man who died at his home here Saturday, were held at McKee Funeral Home at 2 p. m. Monday. The funeral service was read by C. C. Hall of Fort Dodge.

Burial was in the Laurens cemetery, with Masonic rites at the grave by members of Grace Lodge No. 519, A. F. & A. M., led by S. E. Swanson and F. K. Dubbert. Pall bearers were F. G. Gilchrist Jr., Jake Ziegler, Lyle George. R. M. Hinn, E. J. Kees and Neil L. Maurer.

Byron Arnold Hakes, eldest son of Montague and Harriet Hakes, was born in Laurens June 14, 1886. On Saturday, June 14, 1947, his 61st birthday anniversary, he departed this life leaving a void that will never be filled for his widow, daughters and son.

Arnold grew up in Laurens, graduated from Laurens High School, and after a year at Iowa State College and another at Colorado School of Mines, he went to northwestern Washington to work with a crew lumbering off some timber lands in which his father was interested. It was there in Spokane that he and Weltha Luetta Schram of Hamilton, Ontario, were united in marriage April 22, 1908. They returned to Laurens where Arnold joined his father in the firm of M. Hakes & Sons.

On Nov. 30, 1909, a son, Montague Arnold was born; on March 14, 1912, a daughter, Kathleen Evely, now Mrs. H. J. Allen of Des Moines; and on July 16, 1917, Weltha Jewell, now Mrs. R. G. Doyen, temporarily living in Ames.

Arnold spent his younger years in the store at Laurens, and later was employed by the state of Iowa until 1934 when he retired. In 1940 his health began to fail and he spent the winters of his last years in the south, first in Texas and later in Arizona. He always returned to Laurens in the summers; no other place was ever home to him.

In all his years he was intensely interested in Laurens and the surrounding farm community, and was proud of his town. To his children he was a delightful source of stories of the early days of Laurens. A few weeks before his death he drove with members of his family around the town, looking over the new business buildings and homes, and then out into the surrounding countryside where he knew the history of every farm; and he talked about his town, the best in the world to him.

Arnold's departure was the first break in his family circle. Surviving are his wife, two daughters, one son and seven grandchildren: Charles Colson Allen, Bruce Hakes Allen, Kathleen Elizabeth Allen, John Montague Hakes, Mary Kathryn Hakes, Thomas Richard Doyen and Robert David Doyen.

Other immediate survivors are his brothers, Karl of Chicago, and Paul and Ledgard of Laurens.