Joseph Daniel FRENCH

FRENCH, HACKLEY, RHOADS, HEDRICK, NORDSTROM, DAUGHENBAUGH, GRANT, POLAND

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/2/2007 at 17:10:05

Mason City Globe Gazette
25 October 2002

BURNSVILLE, Minn. - Joseph Daniel French, the son of Cecil French and Gladys French Hackley, was born Aug. 3, 1925, in Clarion, Iowa, and died Thursday (Oct. 17, 2002) in Burnsville, Minn., of bladder cancer. His boyhood was spent in Clarion, Omaha, Neb., and Rowan, Iowa. In 1940, he and his parents moved to Clarksville, Iowa, where he met his future wife, Geraldine Rhoads. They were married on Oct. 4, 1943, in Des Moines. Joe was drafted into the Army out of his senior year at West High in Waterloo. Joe served in V Corps of the U.S. Army in Europe and was discharged in October of 1945. He attended Hamilton School of Commerce in Mason City, and sometime after that was employed by the federal Internal Revenue Service. He later transferred to the Intelligence Division of the IRS as a criminal investigator. He became a born-again Christian in 1972 and after his retirement, he and his wife, Jerri, became active in "Camps Farthest Out" and the United Prayer Tower, which are headquartered in St. Paul, Minn. Joe was a member of the Valley United Methodist Church in West Des Moines.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his son, J. Patrick, and his son-in-law, Lester Hedrick. Joe was a kind and gentle man, much loved by his family and friends. He will be greatly missed by his family, whom he cared for very much, including his wife of 59 years, Jerri; his daughters, Cynthia French, of Mason City, and Luanne French Nordstrom, of Apple Valley, Minn.; his five grandchildren, Christina Hedrick Daughenbaugh, of Mason City, Heidi Grant and her husband, Dan, of Mason City, Shane Hedrick and his wife, Lyn, of Wasilla, Alaska, and Jessica and Joe Nordstrom of Apple Valley, Minn.; six great-grandchildren, Dustin Hedrick, Casey and Lee Daughenbaugh, of Mason City, Savanna Grant, of Mason City, Kelsey Jo and Mitch Hedrick, of Wasilla; Joe's sister-in-law and husband, Dell and Dick Poland, of Clarksville; his brothers-in-law, Reid Rhoads and his wife, Lavonne, of Davenport, and Richard Rhoads, of San Rafael, Calif. Interment was in Lynwood Cemetery in Clarksville.