Graham Wagoner

Robert Graham "R.G." Wagoner, 96, of Cape Girardeau died peacefully Tuesday, July 7, 2015, at his home, five days before his 97th birthday.

Graham was born July 12, 1918, at the home of his parents, Earl and Helen Wagoner, on a 300-acre farm in Johnson County outside Odessa, Missouri.

During his preteen years, that loving home didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing, and Graham walked and rode a horse to a one-room country school 2 miles away. As a teenager, he lived during the Great Depression and did his share of hard farm labor, throwing bales of hay or bundles of head-high corn onto horse-drawn wagons.

After earning his diploma from Odessa High School and spending a year at what is now Park University in Parkville, Missouri, Graham transferred to the state college in Warrensburg, Missouri, where he earned a 60-hour teaching certificate. He began teaching during the school year and attending college during the summer months. Of the five jobs he had during his long teaching career, he only had to apply for the first one. By the time he retired, he had taught everyone from first-graders to graduate students.

In his first position, he taught all eight grades in a group of about 16 students in a one-room country school. He already had taught in two one-room schools and taught industrial arts at a high school by the time he earned his undergraduate degree in industrial arts from what now is called the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg.

Graham married Justine Evonne Wagoner, an elementary schoolteacher, on May 1, 1942, at her family home near Bates City, Missouri. They were married 71 years.

After Graham earned his master's degree from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley in 1949, he and Evonne moved to Cape Girardeau where he began 31 years on the faculty of Southeast Missouri State University. He taught generations of future high-school "shop teachers" and other students woodwork and metalwork. He also established courses in leather carving and plastic carving.

Graham and Evonne were faithful members of Centenary United Methodist Church, where Graham was active in Methodist Men, Wesley Foundation and many church committees. He sang in the choir 65 years and never stopped. He performed with the community choral group called the Cape Choraliers, which sang on Missouri Day at the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle. He later sang in barbershop quartet groups. Now the choir in Heaven has a new tenor.

Survivors include two sons, Phil (Leta) Wagoner of Cape Girardeau and Daryl (Ellen) Wagoner of Fort Worth, Texas; two granddaughters, Laura (Lance) McClard of Jackson and Leslie Wagoner of St. Louis; and two great-grandchildren, Ainsley and Finn McClard of Jackson.

Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home.

The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Centenary United Methodist Church, 300 N. Ellis St., with the Rev. Dave Conley officiating. Entombment will be in Cape County Memorial Park Mausoleum.

Memorial contributions may be sent to Centenary United Methodist Church or Southeast Hospice.

Online condolences may be shared at fordandsonsfuneralhome.com.