MATTHEW SCHLIMME

WHITEWATER -- Funeral service for Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew E. Schlimme of Forks, Wash., will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. James United Church of Christ in Tilsit. The Revs. Jim Schultz and Jeff Jackson and a chaplain from the U.S. Coast Guard will officiate. Full military honors will be conducted by the Coast Guard from St. Louis. Burial will be in the church cemetery.

Friends may call at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel in Cape Girardeau from 4-8 p.m. Saturday, from 9 a.m. to noon Sunday, and then at the church from 1 p.m. to service time.

Schlimme, 24, died Wednesday, Feb. 12, 1997, in a boating accident during a rescue mission with the Coast Guard off the coast of La Push, Wash.

He was born Feb. 9, 1973, in Cape Girardeau, son of Larry and Haroletta Schlimme. He and Christine Simpkins were married April 16, 1994, at Tilsit.

Schlimme was a 1991 graduate of Jackson High School, and had served in the Coast Guard since May 1993. Prior to La Push he had been stationed at Cape May, N.J., and Dubuque, Iowa.

He was a member of St. James Church.

Survivors include his wife of La Push; his parents of Whitewater; a brother, Andrew Schlimme of Cape Girardeau; a sister, Angie Hendershott of Jackson; and paternal grandparents, Millard and Fern Schlimme of Cape Girardeau.

A grievance service was held Saturday at the base in La Push, and a Coast Guard memorial service was held Wednesday at the Quileute Tribal Gymnasium in La Push.