Tommy Kenneth “Buck” Rhodes, 83, rural Iola, died Friday, July 16, 2010, at the Overland Park Regional Medical Center.
He was born Sept. 25, 1926, in Neodesha, the son of James Frederick “Fred” and Mary Ellen (Allman) Rhodes. He attended school in LaHarpe and then served overseas in the United States Army during World War II.
On Dec. 28, 1946, he married Verle M. Williams and they made their home in Yates Center before moving to Cherryvale in 1953. In 1974, they moved to Haysville where they lived until retiring in 1988, then returned to the farm northeast of Iola.
He worked construction and for Kansas Gas and Electric. He was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He was a Boy Scout leader, 4-H leader and a coach for girls softball. He was a member and past commander of Iola American Legion Post No. 15 and was presently serving as Chef De Gare of the Forty and Eight. He also was a member of the Chanute Veterans of Foreign Wars, Moran Masonic Lodge, Shriners and the Evangelical Covenant Church in Savonburg.
He and his wife rode their motorcycle in all 48 contiguous states and Canada and through all 105 counties in Kansas.
She survives, as do four children, Peggy Gragg and her husband, Mike, Grove, Okla., Sue Rhodes, Morgantown, N.C., Roy D. “Stub” and his wife, Lu Anne, Cherryvale, and Mary Langton and her husband, Jim, Moran; two brothers, Richard “Shorty,” Fosston, Minn., and Larry “Chick,” Kansas City, Mo.; a sister, Joyce Acton, Kansas City, Kan.; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by an infant son, Kenneth Ray, and four brothers.
Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Waugh-Yokum & Friskel Memorial Chapels in Iola. Burial, with military honors, will follow at LaHarpe Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Waugh-Yokum & Friskel.
Memorials may be made to Iola American Legion for nursing scholarships and may be left with the funeral home, which is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences for the family may be left at www.iolafuneral.-com.
Buck Rhodes
