Ethel Gunter services Wednesday
Services to celebrate the life of Ethel Nora Russell Gunter, 90, Elwood, Kan., and formerly of Dora, will take place 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2001, at Heaton-Bowman-Smith and Siduenfaden Chapel in St. Joseph.
Mrs. Gunter died Saturday, Feb. 10, 2001, from stroke complications. She was born Jan. 1. 1911, in Dora, the daughter of James Pinkney "Pink" Russell and Rhilda Dobbs Russell.
She was reared and attended schools in southern Missouri. On Oct. 3, 1926, she was married at Pottersville to Bartholomew "B" Gunter, who preceded her in death in April 1980.
She and her husband were farmers in southern Missouri and Idaho before moving to Kansas. In the 1940s, she worked at Mokins Poultry Packing Plant in St. Joseph. In 1953, the Gunters became residents of Elwood, Kan., and opened Gunter Grocery Store in Elwood. The store was a focal point in Elwood and was open during the next 29 years. It was a well-known saying among those who knew the couple that they 'gave away more then they sold' because of their never turning anyone away who was in need.
Mrs. Gunter lived in Elwood until her health failed in 1998. From 1998 until her death, she resided in a health care center in St. Joseph.
She was a member of the Family Worship Center in St. Joseph.
Survivors include two daughters, Wanda M. Nash, Dora, and Joyce K. Klawonn, Elwood; one brother, Sanford Warren Russell, St. Joseph; 12 grandchildren; 27 great-grandchildren; and seven great-great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; one daughter, Mary Kathleen Reed, who died in 1996; one son, Doyle Edward Gunter in 1995; one brother, Clyde Russell in 1981, who lived with the Gunters; and two sisters, Clora Losh in 1953 and Jewel Byrd in 1998.
Burial will be in Bellemont Cemetery, Wathena, Kan.