Malcom Gramling

KENNETT, Mo. -- Graveside service for Malcom Oscar Gramling of Kennett will be held at 11 a.m. today at Memorial Gardens Cemetery.

The funeral was held Monday at McDaniel Funeral Home, with Sam Stewart officiating.

Gramling, 74, died Sunday, July 7, 2002, at Heritage Nursing Center.

He was born Dec. 16, 1927, in Walcott, Ark., son of Estes G. and Cordie May Gramling. He and Dolores Vearn Ray were married Nov. 25, 1949.

Formerly of Cape Girardeau, he had been an auto mechanic instructor at Cape Girardeau Vo-Tech School, worked at Tanksley Trucking and Nation Brothers; owned and operated Malcom's Garage and operated a farm in Dunklin County.

He was a member of First Baptist Church in Kennett. He received the title of World Cotton Picking Champion at the international competition in Blytheville, Ark., in 1951.

Survivors include his wife; a son, Tim Gramling of Cape Girardeau; three daughters, Lee Wells of Harriman, Tenn., Teresa Gemeinhardt of Anniston, Mo., Julie Foster of Plano, Texas; two brothers, Eugene Gramling of Kennett, Stan Gramling of Heber Springs, Ark.; three sisters, Maxine Ward of Aurora, Mo., Alidine Tinkle of Kennett, Madonna Stewart of Paragould, Ark.; and 11 grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers, and a grandson.