Maurice Grimes

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Maurice Raymond Grimes, 91, died Saturday, Sept. 3, 2005, at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Maurice was born Dec. 17, 1913, in North Bend, Neb., to Harry David and Hazel Fern Williams Grimes. He grew up in North Bend and Madison, Neb., and moved with the family to Kearney, Neb., in 1927, where his father was the depot agent for Union Pacific.

Maurice was a third generation Union Pacific railroad employee and was conductor on the Kearney to Stapleton passenger train, when he married Dorothy Alcena Miller Adams, a widow, from Tryon, Neb., in Stapleton, Neb., on April 22, 1944.

Maurice and Dorothy, with her young son Riley Adams, moved to Kearney in the summer of 1944. The family moved to Gordon, Neb., in 1947, where Maurice attended Mid West Bible College. He served as lay minister to the Sioux Indians and worked as a carpenter in the Gordon area until July 1963.

Maurice returned to Kearney in 1963, after the death of his father, and worked as a machinist and tool maker until his retirement in 1972.

Maurice and Dorothy retired to Palmetto, Fla., in 1972 and spent every summer in their camper at Fort Kearney until 2002, when they became year-round residents of Palmetto. In June 2005, Maurice and Dorothy moved to the Marble Hill/Scopus area, where they lived with their son and his wife, Dr. Riley and Connie Adams.

Maurice is survived by his wife Dorothy; four children, Riley and Connie Adams of rural Marble Hill, Max and Christie Grimes of Colorado Springs, Colo., Mary and Ken Purdy and John and Linda Grimes of Kearney; 14 grandchildren; 16 greatgrandchildren.

He is also survived by a brother, Ralph Grimes of Bradenton, Fla.; and a sister, Dorothy Kimler of Kearney, Neb.

He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother and three sisters.

Funeral services will be held at Cracraft-Miller Funeral Home in Jackson at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7. Friends may call from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. Interment will be at Mansion Memorial Gardens in Ellenton, Fla., under the warm tropical skies and the stately palms that he loved so much.

Memorials may be made to the Salvation Army.