Donald Ward Sheets

Donald Ward Sheets, 90, Nevada, passed away on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012, at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., following a brief illness. He was born on Oct. 17, 1922, at home in Avilla, Mo., to John William Sheets and Lois Maybelle Paul Sheets. He married Jeanne Anne McHugh on June 25, 1949, in Nevada, Mo., and she survives of the home.

Don was raised in Carthage and came to Nevada as a teenager. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the Philippines and received the Purple Heart. Following the service, he worked at Sears in Nevada for a few years. He then farmed and raised cattle for many years. Don was a Baptist, a member of the Osage Masonic Lodge No. 303, a charter member of the B.P.O. Elks Lodge No. 564 in Nevada, Past Rajah of the Abou Ben Adhem Shrine Club, Nevada, Mo., a member of the Abou Ben Adhem Temple, Springfield, Mo., and a member of the Southwest Missouri Team Penners.

Survivors in addition to his wife, Jeanne, include four children, Connie Garton, Mike Sheets, and Monte Sheets, all of Nevada, and Lois Miller, Louisburg, Kan.; six grandchildren, Kylie Moad, Kimberly Toellner, Kristen Twellman, Jared Sheets, Logan Harms, and Jon Sheets; seven great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews and two half-brothers and two half-sisters.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m., Friday, Dec. 21, at Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada. Interment with military honors will follow in National Cemetery, Fort Scott, Kan. Masonic rites will be held at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 20, with visitation following from 7-8 p.m., at Ferry Funeral Home. Friends may call now and until the hour of service at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to the Shriners Fund for Crippled Children in care of Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada.

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