Earl Lewis Sr.

Earl Gardner Lewis Sr., age 88, passed away Friday, Sept. 20, 2002, at the Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Friends may call between 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 23, 2002, at the McCombs Funeral Home in Cape Girar-deau. Funeral service will be at 11:30 a.m. at the funeral home, followed by interment in Fairmount Cemetery. Ministers David Bragg and Bryan McAlister will officiate.

Mr. Lewis was born April 14, 1914, at St. Louis, Mo., the son of Almon R. and Clara L. Hayward Lewis. On Dec. 24, 1939, he married Virginia Gale Stubblefield. She survives.

Other loving survivors include two sons, Earl G. Lewis Jr. of San Diego, Calif., and Cary Dean Lewis and his wife Emma Jean of Cape Girardeau; seven grandchildren, Earl III, Keith, Melissa, and Mark of San Diego, Kendall and his wife Melanie, Deana, and Derek of Cape Girardeau; two sisters, Ella M. Lynch of Cape Girardeau and Eula M. Young of Metropolis, Ill. He is also survived by many loving nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by three brothers, Thayer L., Merrill G. and Russell E. Lewis.

Mr. Lewis was a member of the First Christian Church in Cape Girardeau. He had worked for Gulf Oil Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Texaco Oil Company of Chicago, Ill., as a tankerman. He later worked as a tugboat pilot for James A. Hannah Co. of Chicago, Crounse Corporation of Paducah, Ky., and Missouri Barge Lines of Cape Girardeau. He retired in 1979.

Expressions of sympathy may take the form of contributions to the First Christian Church Building Fund in Cape.