Frank L. Swager Jr.

Frank L. Swager Jr., 85, Nevada, passed away on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, at Christian Health Care in Nevada. He was born Oct. 18, 1922, in Topeka, Kan., to Frank Leonard Swager Sr. and May Violet (Brown) Swager. He married Mary Jean Maple on Oct. 27, 1942, in Vancouver, Wash., and she preceded him in death on Feb. 3, 2004.

Frank attended Nevada Schools and graduated from Nevada High School in 1940. While in school, he was co-captain of the football team. He then went to Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo., where he continued to play football and was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity. In 1943, he joined the United States Marine Corps during which time he was assigned guard duty for the Navajo Code Talkers in Iwo Jima. He later played football for the United States Marines in both San Diego and Camp Le Jeune in North Carolina. On Sept. 20, 1945, following his service, he served for one year as assistant football coach of Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo. He began his 39-year career in the paper business in 1947 with the Hammermill Paper Company with Midwestern Paper Company in Kansas City, Mo. Frank retired in 1986 as vice president and general manager of Palmer Paper Company in Dallas, Texas, and returned to Nevada that same year. In 2007, Frank and the group of men who had played football for the Missouri Valley Vikings that had won 32 consecutive games and had gone undefeated in 1947 were inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mo. He was a member of the United Methodist Church, Nevada.

Survivors include two daughters, Susan Liter and her husband Wilson, Nevada, Mo., and Ellen Gundy and her husband Doug, Tulsa, Okla.; four grandchildren, Evan Douglas Gundy, Tulsa, Okla., Taylor Franklin Gundy, Woodland Hills, Calif., Holly Anne Liter, Nashville, Tenn., and Mark Andrew Liter and his wife Amy, Joplin; three great-grandchildren, Anna Claire Liter, Kate Elizabeth Liter, and Jack Andrew Liter, Joplin; two sisters, Betty Chirveno and her husband Henry, Independence, Mo., and Norma Scheetz and her late husband Gale, Follansbee, W.Va.; and 13 nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m., on Saturday, Feb. 9, at Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada, with the Rev. Ralph Clark officiating. Interment will follow in Newton Burial Park, Nevada, with military honors. Friends may call now and until the hour of service. The family will receive friends from 1-2 p.m., prior to the service.

Memorials may be given in his memory to the Vernon County Cancer Relief Fund, Vernon County People for Pets, or the United Methodist Church in care of Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada.

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