David Brian Miller
1965 – 2019

David Brian Miller 53, of Saint Joseph, Missouri, passed away Monday, March 18, 2019 at Mosaic Life Care Hospital.
He was born August 8, 1965 in Forrest Park, GA, son of the late Daisey and Ray Miller. He graduated from Faucett high school class of 1984. He worked at City of St. Joseph as a Street Dept. & Coca Cola. David enjoyed riding Harley Davidson motorcycles, gun collecting, collecting show cars, (1973 Mustang Mach 1, and a 1967 El Camino) and he was a member of the Mid-American Mustangers Car Club. He was preceded in death by wife, Gaile Yvonne Miller, his parents, brother, Mike Miller, and sister, Lila Miller-Shippy.
Survivors include, four children: Felicia Miller, Brian Miller, Ciara Miller, and Jamie Faris, all of St. Joseph, MO, his beloved best friend, Cali, brother Robert Miller, of Kansas City, MO, sister, Rosie (Jim) Brink, Wichita, KS, and 1/2 sister, Jan Trevino, Omaha, NE, granddaughters Jasmine Proctor, and Carol Hall, great-granddaughter, Gracie Faris, and family friends Cindy Gibson and Delores “D.J.” Silvey, St. Joseph, MO.
Funeral services: 2:00 pm, Thursday, March 21, 2019 at Rupp Funeral Home, bikers welcomed to ride in the procession. The family will receive friends from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Wednesday at the Rupp Funeral Home. The Interment will be at the Bethel Cemetery.
Aaron Christopher Shelton
1991 – 2019

Aaron C. Shelton, 27, of Jetmore, KS, formerly of Atchison, KS passed away Monday, March 18, 2019.
A celebration of life visitation will be held Saturday, March 23, 2019 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm at the Becker-Dyer-Stanton Funeral Home, Atchison, KS. Memorials are suggested to the Jaxson Shelton Education Fund in care of the family and may be sent to the funeral home. Online condolences may be left at www.beckerdyer.com.
Aaron was born October 26, 1991 in Atchison, KS, the son of Ron and Laralee (Sandy) Shelton. He was a coach for the Hodgeman County Junior, Senior High School in Jetmore, KS. Aaron enjoyed working with kids. He loved music, writing his own rap and hip hop lyrics.
Survivors include his fiancé Tasha Smith of Jetmore, KS, a son Jaxson Shelton, Las Vegas, NV, his parents Ron and Laralee Shelton, Atchison, KS, three brothers, Derek (Hailee) Shelton, Highland, KS, Trae Shelton, Topeka, KS, Tanner Shelton, Jetmore, KS, niece and nephew, Bryler and Braylon Shelton, maternal grandparents Larry and Judy Sandy, Atchison, KS, paternal grandmother, Nancy Shelton, Atchison, KS, and many aunts, uncles and cousins.
He was preceded in death by his paternal grandfather, Gene Shelton and an uncle Jeff Sandy.
Leonard Louis “Bud” Rice
1931 – 2019

Leonard Louis “Bud” Rice, 88, of Effingham, KS passed away Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at the Atchison Senior Village.
Funeral service will be 10:30 Monday, March 25, 2019 at Becker-Dyer-Stanton Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Oak Hill Cemetery, Severance, KS. Family will receive friends Sunday from 2:00 to 4:00 pm at the funeral home. Memorials are suggested to Atchison Senior Village or Heartland Hospice and may be sent in care of the funeral home. Words of sympathy and remembrance may be left online at www.beckerdyer.com.
Bud was born March 5, 1931 in Brenner, KS, one of nine children of Henry and Elisbeth (Underwood) Rice. Bud owned and operated his own billboard installer company in the Kansas City area for many years. Bud also raised cattle and chickens and enjoyed showing his coon hounds and coon hunting.
Bud married Katharine (Potter) Wilcox on May 6, 1993 in Miami, OK; she survives of the home. Additional survivors include two sons, Ricky (Chelli) Rice, Norman Rice; two daughters, Nancy Rice, Teresa Rice; two step-daughters, Cheryl (Steve Joice) Morris, and Connie (Ron) Jamvold; 17 grandchildren and 33 great-grandchildren.
Bud was preceded in death by his parents; four brothers; four sisters; and two sons, Larry and Clarence Rice.
Maureen Patricia Bull
1943 – 2019
Maureen Patricia Bull 76, of Saint Joseph, Missouri, passed away Monday, March 18, 2019 at Mosaic Life Care Hospital. She was born March 8, 1943 in Seattle, WA, daughter of the late Patricia and John Walsh. She worked at Sherwood Medical until it closed in 1993 then at retiring from Mosaic Life Care Hospital after several years, she also owned and operated Mary Ellen’s Ceramics with her husband. She enjoyed ceramics, watching detective movies, reading, and spending time with family, she was Catholic. Maureen was preceded in death by husband, Ronald Bull, her parents, and son, Mike Bull. Survivors include, daughter, Mary Ellen (Tom) Mullins, sons, Ronnie Bull and Marty Bull, daughter-in-law, Debra Bull, all of St. Joseph, MO. Five grandchildren, Mentry (Lisa) Bull, Megan (David Gillip) Mullins, Patrick (Ashley) Mullins, Sarah (Jacob) Kretzer, and Eli Bull, five great grandchildren, brothers, Thomas Walsh, Pat (Noreen) Walsh, and Marty (Donna) Walsh, sisters, Cheri Hamrin, Theresa Bunker and Shannon Joslin all of Washington State.
Funeral services: 2:00 pm, Friday, March 22, 2019 at Rupp Funeral Home. The family will receive friends from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Thursday at the Rupp Funeral Home. Online condolence and obituary at www.ruppfuneral.com.
Helen Loree Sowers
1933 – 2019

Helen Loree Sowers 85, of Savannah, Missouri, passed away Friday, March 15, 2019 in Mesa Arizona.
She was born November 29, 1933 in Worth County MO, daughter of the late Effie and Joseph Gladstone. She graduated from Albany MO high school and Missouri Methodist Medical Center Nursing School. She was the head nurse in the ICU and CCU at several hospitals throughout her career. Later in her career, she worked at Family Guidance and was a Travel Nurse, where she enjoyed moving around the country working with different people and cultures.
Helen was preceded in death by her parents, son, James Edward Kizior, brother, Joseph R. Gladstone, Jr., sisters, Audra Mettscher, and Beulah Klatt.
Survivors include, sons, Stanley Kizior Jr., St. Joseph, MO, Randall Ellison, Mesa, AZ., Jim (Barb) Ellison of Kansas City, MO, and John (Angie) Kizior of Mesa, AZ, 9 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren and 1 great great grandchild. Tremendous and heartfelt thanks go to the truly exceptional staff at MiCasa Nursing Center, who provided much more than nursing care for Helen, but also provided a peaceful and compassionate environment during her transition.
Funeral services: 10:00 am, Saturday, March 23, 2019 at Rupp Funeral Home, Pastor Leanna VanZandt Nauman officiating, The family will receive friends from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Friday at the Rupp Funeral Home. The Interment will be at the Knox Cemetery. Memorials are requested to the online condolence and obituary at www.ruppfuneral.com
Cpl. Frederick Eugene Coon
1928 – 1950

Corporal Frederick Eugene Coon, 22, of St. Joseph, Missouri, was killed in action July 29, 1950, near Geochang, Republic of Korea.
He was born March 21, 1928, in Fairview, KS, son of the late Ethel (Loffer) and John Coon. He enlisted in the United States Army on April 22, 1948. He was reported Missing In Action for 68 years before being positively identified on October 29, 2018.
This is his story from the United States military report: Corporal Frederick Eugene Coon, assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, was reported Missing in Action by his unit after being last seen executing a road block on 29 July 1950, near the village of Gwonbin-ri, Republic of Korea.
Corporal Coon was continued in an MIA status until 31 December 1953, when having received no information that Cpl. Coon had survived the war, the U.S. Army issued a Presumptive Finding of Death. Initial post-war accounting efforts failed to conclusively associate any remains recovered from the Korean battlefields with Cpl. Coon, and as a result, the U.S. Army declared his remains “non-recoverable” on 16 January 1956. In 1950, a local villager reported discovering and burying the remains in early August. According to the villager, and his son, the three remains consisted of one “North Korean” and two U.S. service personnel that they buried and later marked with a sign that stated “Grave of UN dead.”
During the recovery, material evidence was collected that indicated at least some of individuals in this graves carried U.S. produced military equipment and clothing. On 23 February 1952, the 565th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company recovered three sets of remains from a shallow grave, and they were transferred to Tanggok for temporary burial. As part of the decision to consolidate the remains of all United Nations military cemeteries on the Korean Peninsula to UNMC Tanggok, unidentified remains were shipped to the Central Identification Unit (CIU), Kokura, Japan, in an attempt to associate them with unresolved casualties.
The investigators at the CIU determined that there were 189 unresolved casualties from the units known to have been in the general area where soldier X-5272 (Cpl. Coon) was recovered as of May 1954. The CIU was able to narrow this list of potential name associations down to three, including Cpl. Coon, based on the identification. However, the CIU declared soldier X-5272 (Cpl. Coon) unidentifiable due to an absence of pertinent identifying clues found with the remains and incomplete dental information.
He was then transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP) in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was buried with full military honors as a Korean War Unknown in Section U, Grave 830. He was posthumously awarded and decorated with the Purple Heart, Army Good Conduct Medal, Army of Occupation Medal with Japan Clasp, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, Republic of Korea War Service Medal, Presidential Unit Citation (Army & Air Force), Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
In April 2013, Cpl. Coon’s great niece Stephanie Coon decided to take on the monumental task of finding her great uncle through whom she had only known from family stories that he was Missing in Action during the Korean War. Stephanie tracked down the above information and after nearly 5 years of persistence and hard work, the remains of soldier X-5272 (Cpl. Coon) were exhumed on March 12, 2018, from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, by the Department of POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
After seven months, on October 28, 2018, the Odontologist, Anthropologist, and Historian of the DPAA identified soldier X-5272 as Corporal Frederick Eugene Coon. The decision was made by Cpl. Coon’s nearest next of kin, nephew Jerry Coon and niece Stephanie Coon, to have him repatriated and transferred back home for a proper funeral service, where family and friends can pay tribute to him. He will be repatriated and buried with full military honors at the National Cemetery, Leavenworth Kansas.
Corporal Frederick Coon was preceded in death by his parents, Ethel and John H Coon, brothers, Ernest, William, Zack, and John C. Coon, sisters, Eunice Wallace, Jennie Williams, and Dorie Hatcher. Survivors include, several nieces and nephews, including nephew Jerry (Nina) Coon, Saint Joseph, MO, (son of Zack Coon, brother of Cpl. Coon) and great niece, Stephanie Coon, Greenbelt, MD (grand daughter of John C Coon, brother of Cpl. Coon).
There will be a visitation from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Tuesday April 23, at the Rupp Funeral Home for family, friends and fellow Veterans to pay their respects to Cpl. Coon. Funeral Services will be conducted at 12 noon Wednesday April 24, 2019 at the Rupp Funeral Home. The Interment with full military honors under the auspices of the United States Army will be at the Leavenworth National Cemetery on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. Memorials are requested to the Wounded Warriors Project. Online condolence and obituary at www.ruppfuneral.com.