"B" OBITUARIES

Cape Girardeau County Missouri Genealogy Trails


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Cape Girardeau, MO--FUNERAL SERVICE FRIDAY FOR MRS. CHARLES BAHN--The funeral for Mrs. Charles F. Bahn, 47 years old, who died of a heart attack unexpectedly Wednesday forenoon (26 Nov 1975) at her home, 2418 Brookwood, will be held at 1:30 Friday afternoon at First Christian Church.
The Rev. Max Jenkins, pastor, will conduct the service.  Burial will be in Memorial Park.  The body is at Ford and Sons Funeral Home, where friends may call after 4 this afternoon.
Pallbearers will be Dr. E. L. Bahn Jr., Taylor Bahn, William Bahn, David Bahn, Gene Martin and Robert O. Hirsch.
Mrs. Bahn, the former Miss Betty Bowen Morrow, was born on Nov. 25, 1927, in Little Rock, AR.  She and Dr. Bahn were married on Dec. 27, 1949 in Newport, AR, where her parents lived.  They moved to Cape Girardeau from New Orleans, LA in 1957, when Dr. Bahn opened his medical practice.
Mrs. Bahn attended grade school in Newport, was in high school at Norfolk, VA, then came to Cape Girardeau when her father was a consulting engineer at Harris Field, now Municipal Airport.  She was graduated from Central High School.
Following graduation there she attended SEMO State University and in 1949 was graduated with honors in English from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
A member of First Christian Church, she was active in the Faith Circle, and was a past deaconess.  She belonged to the Christian Women's Fellowship, Church Women United and was a member of Chapter BI, P.E.O.  Mrs. Bahn was also a member of the Cape County Medical Auxiliary and the Southeast Missouri Hospital Auxiliary.
Surviving are her husband; sons, Charles F. Jr., Christopher, Stuart and Stephen Bahn, all at home; daughter, Miss Martel Bahn, at home; her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Morrow, Newport; and an uncle, Martel Bowen, Dallas, TX.

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Winter Park, FL--VANITA G. BILOTTA, 86, Legion Drive, Winter Park, died Thursday, Sept. 9, of leukemia. Mrs. Bilotta was a registered nurse and homemaker. Born in Gordonville, Mo., she moved to Central Florida in 1950. She was a member of Orange County Medical Society Auxiliary, Retired Officers Wives Club and Lutheran Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association. She was a member of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church. Survivors: son, Dr. Victor J., St. Petersburg; daughters, June McNamara, Orlando, Alice Jackson, Maitland, Ellen Bilotta-Moore, Winter Park; sisters, Clara Kiehne, Cape Girardeau, Mo., Albertine Scherrer, Walnut Creek, Calif.; 10 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren. Carey Hand Cox-Parker Funeral Home, Winter Park.   --Orlando Sentinel, The (FL) - September 11, 1999

LESTER H. BIPPUS, 85 of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006 at Missouri Veterans Home.  He was born Feb. 22, 1921 in Chicot County, Ark., son of Otto Franklin and Vera Poole Bippus. He and Frieda James were married Oct. 2, 1942 in Cape Girardeau at First Church of God. She died in August 1974. He later married Lillian Vanover in 1975 in Butler, Ind. She died in August 1984.
Mr. Bippus served in the Navy from Jan. 28, 1941 to Feb. 1, 1947. He was a Pearl Harbor Survivor. He received a Good Conduct Medal, World War II Victory Ribbon, American Theater Ribbon, American Defence Ribbon, Asiatic-Pacific Ribbon, Philippine-Liberation Ribbon, and Navy Unit Commendation.
After his military service, Mr. Bippus worked for Meyer Alberts Grocerer in Cape Girardeau 13 years. He then worked for a metal foundry in San Francisco.
In 1984 he moved back to Missouri from Butler (Ind). He was a member of First Church of God.
He is survived by a daughter, Janet Voelker (Coy) Willard of Cape Girardeau; a stepson, Ronald (Kathy) Vanover of Sellersburg, Ind; a stepdaughter, Ruth (Doug) Meyer of Unity, Ohio; a daughter-in-law, Stella Bippus of Cape Girardeau; two sisters, Dorothy Schlessor of Burlingame, Calif., Wanda Johnson of Auburn, Ind.; four grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; a great-great grandson; five stepgrandchildren; and four great-step-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by a son, Frank Bippus, and a brother, Otto Bippus.
There will be no visitation.
Graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Butler Cemetery in Butler (Ind) with full military honors.
Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of local arrangements.

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TILMON R. BLOCKER, 76, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, Jan. 28, 2008 at his home.  He was born Sept. 17, 1931, son of Tilmon and Ruth Russell Blocker.  He married Evelyn Fornkohl on March 18, 1961 in Marble Hill, MO.  He served in the United States Navy during the Korean War as a GM3.  He had been employed with Rose Barge Lines, Cape Poster and the city of Cape Girardeau.  Survivors include his wife, Evelyn Blocker of Cape Girardeau; a daughter, Edith Lowes of Cape Girardeau; and a grandchild.  He was preceded in death by a sister.  Friends may call  from 4:30 to 8 p.m. today at Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel.  The funeral will be at 1 p.m. Wednesday (Jan. 30, 2008) at the funeral home, with the Rev. Thomas Kiefer officiating.  Burial will be at Fairmont Cemetery in Cape Girardeau with full military honors.

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TOPEKA, KS - THEON MCLEARY BOWMAN, 88, Topeka, died Dec. 19, 1991, at a hospital in Topeka. She was born in Millersville, Mo., and lived in Iowa and Atchison and Ottawa in Kansas before moving to Topeka 11 years ago. Miss Bowman taught English at the Atchison High School for more than 45 years before she retired in 1971. She received a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Kansas and did post-graduate work at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and at Washington University. She attended the First United Methodist Church of Ottawa. Survivors include a sister, Eloise B. "Sunny" Larson, Ottawa. Services will be at 2 p.m. Monday at the Lamb-Roberts Chapel, Ottawa; graveside services will at 3 p.m. Monday at Highl and Cemetery, Ottawa. --Kansas City Star, The (MO) - December 21, 1991 



Midlothian, TX--HEART STROKE TAKES PIONEER ON DALLAS VISIT--Funeral Services Set for Edward Byrd, 88, Oilman's Father--EDWARD BYRD, 88 Midlothian, long-time resident of Texas and father of D. Harold Byrd, Dallas Oilman and Texas wing commander of the Civil Air Patrol, died of a heart attack here Thursday.
Mr. Byrd was stricken as he walked along St. Paul in front of the Federal Building shortly before noon Thursday and was dead on arrival at Parkland Hospital.  
A native of Missouri, Mr. Byrd was the grandson of pioneers who had pushed westward in 1799 into Missouri while it still was part of the Louisiana Territory.  He was born at the Old Stone House, still standing on Byrd's Creek, Byrd Township, Cape Girardeau County, Mo.
Covered Wagon Traveler.
As a youth of 19, he came to Texas for the first time in 1873 in a covered wagon and stayed at Starkville, Lamar County, two months before returning to Missouri by pony, a trip that required a month.
His next trip to Texas was by rail, and he settled at Blossom, Lamar County.  There in 1877 he joined the Presbyterian Church, became a ruling elder three weeks later, and since then had represented the church at various times from the assemblies of the Red River Presbytery to the General Assembly.
Owned Early Day Store.
He married, in 1879, Mollie Easley, daughter of a farmer in the community.  There he built a small home, and later added a gin and mill, then several houses and finally a store.  The community was named Byrd Town.  Later he moved his family to Detroit where he engaged in the mercantile business for a time, and then in 1901 moved  (illegible) where he lived until 1913, moving to Midlothian.  He and his wife celebrated their golden wedding anniversary there in 1929.
In Midlothian he was active in the Presbyterian Church and was chairman of its board of elders, a position he had held for nearly thirty years.
He is survived by his wife, three sons, D. Harold Byrd, R. J. Byrd, Irving, and B. E. Byrd, Midlothian; two daughters, Mrs. R. T. Gidley and Mrs. R. B. McDonald, both of Dallas; seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Midlothian Presbyterain Church, with Dr. Jasper Manton, pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church of Dallas, officiating.  Years ago while Dr. Manton's father was pastor of a Presbyterian Church at Paris, Dr. Manton was ordained there and later became pastor of the same church.  Mr. Byrd attended Dr. Manton's ordination service and many years ago requested that he conduct his funeral.
Burial will be at 4:30 p.m. in the family burial plot at Blossom.  Pallbearers will be Tom H. Dees, W. H. Price, J. P. Sewell, J. G. Oliver, R. R. McElroy and Dr. H. G. Williams, all of Midlothian.  (Source:  Dallas Morning News, January 8, 1943)


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