Burl Statler

Burl Rusby Statler died on Friday, Jan. 17, 2003, at the Lutheran Home. The funeral service will be at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Chapel at 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 20. Visitation will be at 1 p.m. on Monday prior to the service, with the Rev. Jimmie Corbin officiating. Burial will follow at Cape Girardeau Memorial Park Cemetery. Full military rites will be conducted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3838 and the Missouri Honor Team.

He was born Oct. 8, 1918, in Cape Girardeau, the son of Tivis and Mabel Seabaugh Statler. His mother died when he was 5 years old. He attended Cape school before joining the CCC Company 1749 near Decorah, Iowa. Zola and Sam Eldridge were a devoted aunt and uncle with whom he stayed periodically.

He served in the North and South Pacific for six years in the U.S. Navy during World War II as a 3rd class aviation machinist and gunner. He earned the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal, American Area Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Medal and European African Campaign Medal. In addition to him, there were three brothers and a stepbrother in WWII. After the war, he worked for International Shoe Company in Cape Girardeau.

On March 21, 1947, he married Mary Margaret Blumenberg. In 1951, he joined the Cape Girardeau Police Department. He was promoted to sergeant in charge of the parking meters in downtown Cape Girardeau in 1964. He retired from the department in 1978. Burl and Mary were married for almost 55 years when she died Feb. 18, 2002.

He loved children, and they loved him. He collected and repaired old clocks. He was an expert craftsman using wood. He could make anything from kitchen cabinets to mantel clocks. He played the guitar and liked to draw until a stroke took away the use of his right hand.

Surviving siblings include: Paul Statler of Poplar Bluff; Geri Reiminger, Charles W. "Jack" Statler, stepsister Hazel Ford, and stepbrother Stanley Richardson, all of Cape Girardeau. Four brothers: Chalmer, Claude D., Tivis and Robert J. Statler, and one sister, Pauline Statler Albano, preceded him in death. Many loving nieces and nephews also survive him.