St. Clair County Obits

RAY SHELDON COLE

Clinton Daily Democrat
December 1998
Ray Sheldon Cole, 87, died suddenly Saturday, November 21, 1998, at his home in Seminole, Florida.
Ray was born July 15, 1911, near Osceola, to Burlie Sheldon Cole and Lena Viola Carter Cole. He graduated from Osceola High School in 1929 and attended the University of Missouri, Columbia. In
1937, he began his career with Johnson and Johnson which took him to Kansas City, Joplin, St. Louis,
Boston and Chicago. He retired as district sales manager, Chicago, in 1970 and moved to Florida.
Mr. Cole married Clara Juanita Cornelius on September 25, 1938, in Manhattan, Kansas. To this union were born three daughters, Cynthia Ann, Patricia Kay and Susan Ray.
Mr. Cole married Betty Jacobson in 1957 in Chicago. She was a loving mother to Pat and Susan for several years, adopting them as her own with her Debbie. Although the daughters were reared in city life, they remember fondly the vacations taken as a family, always to find some good place to fish, for their dad loved to go fishing. He was a loving father to all of his family, having the best of times with his children and grandchildren, as well as all of the extended family of Cole's. After retirement, he was devoted to keeping the best of lawns, the prettiest of flowers and then to help all his neighbors with their yard work.
At an early age, Ray became a member of Osceola Methodist Church. In his later years, he was a testimony to a life of faith in God, letting us know that he would meet us in Heaven.
In 1975, Ray married Juanita (Jenny) Casis, a devoted wife and companion who survives him at home in Seminole.
Other survivors are the three daughters, Cynthia Hilsabeck and husband, Ferrol, Sun City West, Arizona, Patricia Blake and husband, Charles, Columbia, South Carolina, and Susan O'Malley and husband, Jim, Duvall, Washington; adopted daughter, Ethel Casis of Seminole, Florida; seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Also surviving are one sister, Jaunita Walker and husband, Leo, Clinton; two brothers, Merle Cole and wife, Anne, Billings, Montana, and Roy Cole and wife, Jennice, Temecula, California.
He was preceded in death by his parents; one sister, Idaleen Walters, and two brothers, Everett Cole and Paul Cole. Ray will be greatly missed here on earth by the hose of relatives and friends who loved him. Thanks be to God for leaving him here these 87 years.
Funeral services were held Wednesday, November 25, at the Sheldon-Goodrich Chapel in Osceola. Burial was in the Lowry City Cemetery.