Ralph Carr Jr.

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Funeral Mass for Ralph Reece Carr Jr., 68, will be celebrated Thursday, Oct. 13, 2005, at 10 a.m. at St. Henry Catholic Church in Charleston. Monsignor Richard Rolwing, senior pastor at St. Francis Xavier Church in Sikeston, Mo., will serve as celebrant. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery under the direction of McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston, with Missouri Military Honor Guard providing military graveside rites.

Visitation will be today from 5 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home.

Mr. Carr, a resident of Charleston, died at 7:35 a.m. Monday, Oct. 10, 2005, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau.

He was born Nov. 7, 1936, in Charleston, son of the late Ralph and Geneva Murphy Carr.

He graduated from St. Henry's Catholic School in May 1954.

Mr. Carr enlisted in the U.S. Air Force Reserve June 30, 1954. While enlisted he received his pilot's license. Some of his active duty assignment included piloting C-123, C-130s as load master in the Vietnam War. His plane was one of the last to leave Vietnam.

During his time of service he received several awards, including Air Force Longevity Service Award (with three devices), Vietnam Service Medal, Air Force Reserve Service Medal, National Defense Medal, and Senior Air Crew Member Badge. He retired from service in April 1986.

During his life he was a member of Knights of Columbus, Charleston VFW Post 4294, St. Henry's Catholic Church, and Civil Air Patrol leader. He had also been a flight instructor with a reputation for quality training. He played an instrumental role in the establishment of Mississippi County Airport. In addition to the above, he spent much of his life as a landowner and farmer.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by two sisters, Mea Lou Butler and Patricia Ann Evans.

Survivors include two daughters and a son-in-law, Julie Elizabeth Davis of Charleston, Carrie Lynn and David Elliott Williams of Cape Girardeau; a sister, Mary Elizabeth Shrum of Charleston; a grandson, Johnathan Wayne Zirkle of Charleston; several nieces, nephews, and a special friend, Della Fern Goodin of East Prairie, Mo.

Pallbearers will be Elliott Williams, Brad Tanner, Avery Hutcheson, Richard Hutcheson, Joe Shrum and John Shrum.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.

Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air ...

Up, up, the long, delirious burning blue,

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew.

And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

-- John Gillespie McGee Jr.