Richard G. Gleue of Le Roy died Monday, March 21, 2011, at the Life Care Center of Burlington. He was 94.
He was born Sept. 18, 1916, near Bremen, to Fred and Alwine (Riggert) Gleue. He grew up in the Bremen area and graduated from Hanover High School. His college education was interrupted by World War II. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as an interrogation officer in the European Theater.
On June 4, 1943, he married Hazel L. Stockwell at Lutheran Service Center in Columbus, Ga. At the conclusion of the war, he resumed his pursuit of a college degree at Kansas State University. After completing his college degree in 1948, the couple moved to Le Roy and then to Neosho Falls, where he taught school.
He and his brother, Elmer, then began farming. After farming several years together, they set up separate farming operations. Their farms continue. The couple were awarded the Kansas Banker’s Award for Soil and Water Conservation in 1979. They were also recognized with the 2005 Coffey County Conservation District Buffer Award.
He worked for the Soil Conservation Service in Burlington from 1951 to 1958. In 1958, he became a rural mail carrier out of the Le Roy post office. He retired from the mail route in 1971.
He continued his military service through the Kansas National Guard. When the recently retired National Guard Armory at Burlington was built, Richard was the commanding officer. He later joined the command staff at Ottawa and was in that position when he retired.
Baseball was also a passion of his and he talked many times about the quality of baseball that was played in the local area and particularly at Burlington in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was a well known player on the Burlington team.
He was a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Aliceville and was an active member of The Men’s Club.
Survivors include a daughter, Carol Sue Duran and her husband, John, Baton Rouge, La.; a son, Larry R. and his wife, Wanda, Le Roy; brothers, Elmer and his wife, Illa, Le Roy, and Erwin and his wife, Marlene, Independence; sisters, LuElla Fischer and her husband, Werner, Le Roy, and Selma Crome and her husband, Edgar, Bremen; a sister-in-law, Lorine Gleue, Belleville; six grandchildren and their spouses, Michele and Edward Trudeau, Hyattsville, Md., Susan and Kirk Patten, Santa Fe, N.M., Wendy and Dustin White, Silver Spring, Md., Jatrice Wyatt, Overland Park, Jalayne and Rick Nelson, Parker, and Jad and Erin Gleue, Grand Rapids, Mich.; and 13 great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his wife and two brothers, Helmuth and his wife, Louise, and Fred Gleue.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Jones Funeral Home in Burlington.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Aliceville with the Rev. Luke Brown officiating. Burial will be in St. John’s Cemetery in Aliceville.
Memorials to The Lutheran Hour or St. John’s Lutheran Church may be left at the funeral home.
Richard Gleue
