J. Howard Long, 94, of El Dorado, died on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010 at Vintage Place, El Dorado.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Trinity United Methodist Church, El Dorado.
Graveside services will be at 2 p.m. at Yates Center Cemetery.
The following was written by Howard. “I was born August 22, 1915 in a house on my grandfather’s farm located two and a half miles northwest of Piqua, Kansas, which was rented by my parents and farmed for a living. At the age of six years old I attended grade school at Piqua, Kansas through the second grade. My family lived in several towns in Kansas until moving to the town of Reese, KS in the Spring Creek area the year of 1925.
“During the next few years I attended and completed the eight years of grade school and attended one year of High School at the Reese High School the year of 1931.”
Howard joined the C.C.C. when he was a young man and worked for Farmers Produce for several years in Burlington, Kan. He took a job with the Santa Fe Transportation Company where he was freight agent at Ottawa and then transferred to El Dorado in 1951. He then took a job with Robert Henry Oil Co. and moved to Denver, Colo., and was a manager of an apartment complex.
He also lived in Tucson, Ariz., for a short-time, and came back to El Dorado where he took the job of sexton at Sunset Lawns Cemetery and Belle Vista Cemetery until retirement. He made his home in El Dorado for 59 years.
He was a member of Trinity United Methodist Church (one of those instrumental in building the new church); a 50 year member in Patmos Masonic Lodge #97, where he attained the position of Master of the Lodge; a member of Kansas York Rite #33, Wichita; and the Holy Royal Arch Knight Templar Priest. He was a troop leader of the Boy Scouts, #208 and had taken scouts to Philmont, N.M. He coached baseball for Bob Henry Oil Company for several years.
During World War II he served in the Army attaining the rank of Tech Sgt. He served in the Pacific Theater of War and was among the first troops into Japan after their surrender.
On Dec. 25, 1937, he was married to Irene G. Weide at Yates Center and they were married for 72 years. She survives.
From this union they had four children, Phyllis Gaulding, (widow of A.I.). El Dorado, Lois Green (widow of Gene) of Westfall, Kan., Deborah Benton, Ft. Collins, Colo., and Wayne Long and wife Donna of Wheatland, Wyo.; eight grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandson all survive.
He is also survived by a brother, Jesse Long of Grain Valley, Mo.
In lieu of flowers, the family request memorials may be made to Heartland Hospice or Trinity United Methodist Church. These may be left with Carlson Funeral Home, El Dorado, which has charge of the arrangements. Condolences to the family can be sent to www.carlsoncolonial.com.
