Obituaries

Joseph L. Ross
Dec. 22, 1938-April 30, 1954

Niles Daily Star, Saturday, May 1, 1954, page 1, col. 2 continued page 2, col. 5, microfilm Niles District Library

Five Traffic Deaths in 24 Hours

Two Others Hurt Critically May Push Toll Higher

M-60 Accident Claims Fourth Life After a Niles boy is Killed

The death toll from traffic accidents in Berrien county in 24 hours climbed to five today—the worst tool for such a period in many years.

The toll, however, may go higher. Two more persons injured in highway mishaps are reported as critical.

An accident on M-60 near Three Oaks yesterday claimed the life of a fourth person today. An auto-motorcycle accident in Niles yesterday took the life of a 15 year-old boy.  The M-60 tragedy also threatened to take the life of a fifth person, and a Coloma girl injured in an accident near Eau Claire is not expected to live.

The additional death of the person in the M-60 accident and the Niles boy raised the county's highway death toll to 12 for the year. 

. . . [omitted section about other accident] . .

PROBE TRAFFIC DEATH

A coroner's jury met at 8:30 a.m. today in investigate the traffic death Friday of 15 year-old Joseph Leon Ross. His death ended the city's record of 200 days without a traffic fatality.

The boy, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph N. Ross, 214 South Fifteenth street, succumbed at Pawating Hospital at 2:28 p.m. from injuries incurred at 12:30 p.m. when his motorcycle crashed into a station wagon at Main and Hickory street.

City police held the driver of the station wagon, Robert Emmett Miller, 34, of Chicago, for investigation pending the outcome of the inquest. He was detained overnight in the city jail.

According to the police accident report, the Ross boy was driving his motorcycle west on Main street on his way back to school. Miller was headed east and had missed a turn onto Oak street, the report said.  When Miller reached Hickory, he made a left turn across the westbound traffic lane and crossed in front of the boy's motorcycle, the report said.

The boy was rushed to Pawating Hospital where he was treated for a compound skull fracture. He died about two hours after the accident.

Miller's wife and their children were passengers in the station wagon but were uninjured. Police said the Chicagoan's children, Robert, 7, Jean Anne, 4 and Joseph, were asleep in the rear of the station wagon at the time of the accident.

Members of the coroner's jury investigating the death are Elmer Jones, Henry Starr, Harry Blake, Richard Morris, Leon Washburn and Leo Anstiss.

Ross, a ninth grade student at Niles High School, was born Dec. 22, 1938, in Billings, Mont., the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph N. Ross and came to Niles with his parents 13 years ago.

Surviving besides his parents are: two sisters, Ruth Elizabeth and Norma Jean, both at home; his paternal grandmother, Elsie C. Ross, Bozeman, Mont., and his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Ferguson, Doane, Ind.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday in the New Apostolic Church here, where he was a member.  The Rev. Hugh Lee, pastor, will officiate, and burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery.  Friends may call at the Pifer Funeral Home until noon Monday when the body will be removed to the church.

Wilma Royan
Feb. 17, 1923-April 12, 2001

Niles Daily Star, Friday, April 12, 2001, page 2, col. 1, microfilm Niles District Library

Wilma J. “Jeanne” Royan

1923-2001

Funeral services for Wilma J. “Jeanne” Royan, 78, of 1123 Ferry Street, Niles, are Saturday at 10 a.m. At Halbritter Funeral Home, Niles, by the Rev. Robert M. Zagore of Saint Paul's Lutheran Church.

Burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery, Niles.

Royan died Thursday at 1:10 a.m. Thursday at Lakeland Medical Center, Niles, following a brief illness.

She was born Feb. 17, 1923, in South Bend, Ind., to William and Louise Stair Holley. She had lived in the Niles area since 1959, coming from Portland, Ore.

On Jan. 25, 1962, in Detroit, she married John C. Royan, who preceded her in death.

Royan was a former employee of Simplicity Pattern Company, Niles.  She was a member of saint Paul's Lutheran church in Niles. During her retirement, she was a part-time lunchtime supervisor at Howard school. She was a welder in a Vancouver shipyard during World War II.

In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by a son, John M. Miller.

Survivors include: Two daughters, Laurel J. Rosebush of Findlay, Oh.  and Kathleen Powell of South Bend, Ind.; a son, Vernon L. Lovell of Detroit; a step-son Raymond S. Royan of Naples, Fla.; a stepdaughter, Cheryl Lynn Whiteman of Edwardsburg; a sister Betty Brown; a brother, Jim Holley of Peru, Ind.; 11 grandchildren; and 4 great-grandchildren.

Friends may call from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at Halbritter Funeral Home.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Niles Lions Club.

Ada Rupert
March 26, 1878-April 10, 1935

Niles Daily Star, Wednesday, April 10, 1935, page 1, col. 6, microfilm Niles District Library

Brief Illness Fatal to Mrs. Ada Rupert

Mrs. Ada Rupert, 1621 Huron street, died at her home this morning at 9 o'clock after a two weeks' illness. Diabetes was the cause of her death.

Mrs. Rupert was 57 years old. She had lived in Niles for the last three years, coming here from Dowagiac.  She was born in Berrien Springs, March 26, 1878.

Surviving are her husband, Thomas, and three children, Mrs. Helen Etzcorn and Mrs. Nettie Rogers, Niles, and Lyle Wallace of Canada.  She also leaves two sisters, Mrs. Lena Abbs, Dowagiac, Mrs. Jacob Mangold and William Long, all of Dowagiac.

Funeral arrangements have not been completed.

&

Niles Daily Star, Thursday, April 11, 1935, page 2, col. 2, microfilm Niles District Library

Niles News In Brief:  RUPERT SERVICE SATURDAY

Funeral services for Mrs. Ada Rupert, 1621 Huron street, who died Wednesday morning, will be held in the Rutherford funeral home Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock.  The Rev. Robert E. Meader will officiate and burial will be in Silverbrook cemetery.

Grace Sanderson
Dec. 16, 1799-Dec. 16, 1880

Niles Republican II, Thursday, Dec. 16, 1880, page 2, col. 5, microfilm Niles District Library

DIED

On her birthday (Dec. 16) Grace Sanderson, aged 81 years.

To many of our citizens, especially the older ones, this announcement will bring a feeling of sadness; for one has departed in a good, old age, whose name was to many of us “a household word,” and whose loyalty to her friends, and kindly ministries in the many ways which lay in her power, made her life during the former years, and even later, an example to all, of whatever creed or color.  She was born in the famiily of Gov. Bemont, on the island of St. Martin. One of her proudest boasts was the fact that she “Never was a slave.”  Of her own free will she left the island, when yet young and strong, to accompany the young married daughter of the Governor to this country. For this lady, Mrs. Millard, she  cherished the strongest affection, and always mentioned her name with  characteristic reverence and tenderness.  Her two children, a son and daughter, were sent to this country some time after, the son at present in a hospital at Virginia City, Nevada; the daughter, Mrs. Franklin, still living in Niles.  During her last illness, she was attended with every care, and the number of old friends who daily visited her and vied with each other in making her comfortable, bore witness to the high estimation in which she was held. Always a consistent member of the Episcopal Church, we shall miss her form (in our earlier recollection stately and commanding, of later years feeble and tottering.) as it approached the alter rails at the Holy Eucharist—identified with some of us from childhood's days and sicknesses to the days of maturity and deeper troubles, we shall miss the kindly, unwavering affection, the dignified presence, the grateful appreciation of little tokens of remembrance (would they had been greater) of our loyal friend “Grace”.

Niles Democrat, Saturday, December 25, 1880, page 3, col. 4, microfilm Niles District Library

MARY GRACE SANDERSON

A large congregation attended the funeral of Grace Sanderson on Saturday last, in the Episcopal church. No one can forget “Old” Grace.” The pall bearers were R.W. Landon, Esq., senior warden; Mr. Howlett, Mr. L. Beeson and Judge Johnson. Mrs. Lardner had charge of the music. Rev. Mr. Tate addressed the congregation on the certainty of the resurrection and closed with these remarks:

Every parish has in it some members who are marked for some reason or another from others. They are known either for the seal or earnestness, or for their earnest and simple faith and Christian life. There in every parish men and women whom we may call land marks, persons who are a familiar sight to old and young whom the smallest child always associates with the parent church, and wherever they may go in after life, the thought of such persons is closely associated with the church.

One such church member has been for years known in this parish—Mary Grace Sanderson (colored), who come to this city and parish about 1838. I find in the parish register that she was confirmed in this parish April 18, 1847, and she has been a faithful communicant for 33 years. No one in this parish will ever forget the sight of this aged colored servant of God drawing near the altar only after all others had communed.

To her the teaching of the church was real: “To submit myself to all my governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters, to order myself lowly and reverently to all my betters,” was real to hear? She believed in it and lived up to it.

Being but a short time rector of this parish, I did not know her as others did, but I find all the old members of our church have held her in high estimation for years, and by all she will be remembered. There are some people whom we can never forget and she was one.

Notes:  Listed in City record as Grace Sanders; however, appears that Sanderson is correct.  Did not find death record for Grace Sanders or Sanderson.  Death record for Susan L. Franklin, daughter referred to above, gives her dob as Nov. 11, 1839 in St. Martin and her parents are Thomas Sanderson and Grace Morris, both born in St. Martins, West Indies. 

Ralph R. Sater
June 14, 1902-July 27, 1954

Niles Daily Star, Wednesday, July 28, 1954, page 2, col. 6, microfilm Niles District Library

Ralph R. Sater, 3013 Church street, died suddenly at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Van Riper Building here.

Surviving are his wife, Grace; two sons, Richard of Bertrand, and Donald, serving in Korea with the Army; two daughters, Mrs. Garth Hare, Bertrand, and Miss Diana Sater, at home; six grandchildren; one brother, Jess Sater, of South Bend, and three sisters, Mrs. William Hogue, Mrs. Bessie Johnson and Mrs. Nellie Ryan, all of south Bend.

He was born on June 14, 1902, in Danville, Ill., and came here from South Bend 20 years ago. He had been employed by the Indiana & Michigan Electric Company, South Bend, for 29 years.

Sater was a member of the South Bend Chapter of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

Friends may call at the Kiger Funeral Home, where services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, with Jerome Farmer, reader of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, officiating.  Burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery.

Clara Ellen Deditch Sheckler
May 31, 1899-March 23, 1990

Niles Daily Star, Saturday, March 24, 1990, page 2, col. 1, microfilm Niles District Library

Services for Clara Ellen Sheckler, 90, 902 Bower St. in Elkhart, Ind., formerly of 2488 Almungus[sic] Dr. in Niles are 2 p.m. Monday at Paul E. Mayhew Funeral Home in Edwardsburg by the Rev. Arnold Schaap, retired Presbyterian pastor of Edwardsburg.

Burial is at Silverbrook Cemetery in Niles.

She died at 11:25 a.m. Friday at her Elkhart home after an illness.

She was born May 31, 1899 in Elkhart County and came to Niles from Buchanan in 1922 and left for Elkhart October 1987.

On Oct. 28, 1922, she married Frank Deditch, who preceded her in death July 7, 1964.

On Dec. 9, 1967, she married Elwin Sheckler, who preceded her in death Jan. 4, 1979.

Survivors include brothers, Ellsworth Martin of Elkhart, Dana Martin of Niles, sisters, Mrs. Ione Martin and Mrs. Irving (Shirley) Kell, both of Elkhart.

Friends may call an hour prior to services.