Charles SIMPSON

SIMPSON, MAPEL, ARMSTRONG, SPURRIER, KIRKENDALL, DICKERSON, HORNE, AKREN, DAVIS, BURCH, SMITH, JONES, STEWART, REYNOLDS, SORENSON, LENNING

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 3/9/2009 at 12:02:59

Mount Ayr Record-News, 1923

DEATH of CHARLES SIMPSON.

The shadow of deep sorrow settled over the community Friday afternoon when a message was received from Iowa City bearing the sad news that Charles SIMPSON, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. SIMPSON of this city, had died at the hospital where two weeks before he had submitted to a minor surgical operation on his nose. Following the operation infection set in which caused his death. The body reached Mount Ayr Saturday evening and was taken to the home of his parents, and at three o'clock Sunday afternoon the funeral was held from the Methodist church, conducted by the pastor, Rev. Jay KIRKENDALL. The interment was in Rose Hill cemetery. The funeral was largely attended, the church being filled to capacity by friends who came to pay their last tribute of respect to the young man who by his upright and manly life had commanded the admiration and respect of the people of the community. A masterful sermon was preached by Rev. KIRKENDALL who paid high tribute to the christian character and sterling manhood of the young man who had been called by death. A quartet composed of Mrs. Pearle MAPEL, Mrs. Earle K. ALLYN, H. P. ARMSTRONG and Roy SPURRIER, accompanied by Mrs. Jay KIRKENDALL, sang. The floral offerings were profuse and beautiful. The pall bearers, all members of the American Legion, were: Clarence DICKERSON, Earl HORNE, Robert AKREN, Harold DAVIS, Guy BURCH and Arthur SMITH. Members of the American Legion attended in a body as did also members of Faith Lodge No. 179, A. F. and A. M. Four classmates in the law department of Drake University, Herbert JONES, Paul C. JONES, DeCaverno REYNOLDS and Forest L. STEWART, and the Misses Ann SORENSON and Sylvia LENNING, came from Des Moines to attend the funeral.

Charles Albert SIMPSON, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. SIMPSON, was born in Mount Ayr, Iowa, September 11, 1896, and died at Iowa City Hospital January 19, 1923, aged twenty-six years, four months and eight days. At the age of six he entered the kindergarten of the Mount Ayr schools and in 1915 was graduated from the high school. He was a good student and his ambition to possess a liberal education impelled him to enter Drake University, where he took up his studies in the freshman class in the fall of 1915. In February, 1916, he was initiated into the Kappa Lambda fraternity. He spent the summer of 1917 in travel and sightseeing in Florida, Virginia and other southern states and in the fall of that year entered the British admirality service and traveled in many foreign countries. He came home in 1918 and entered the service of the U.S. army at Camp Dodge September 6, being a member of Company 43, 163d Depot brigade [World War I], and was later transferred to Company K of the 87th infantry. He was selected as a candidate to the officers' training school at Camp Grant, Illinois, in November, 1918, and in January 1919, received his commission as lieutenant. In January of that year he entered the Iowa State University at Iowa City and at the close of the school year accepted a position as platform manager with the Chautauqua company and spent the summer in that work. He was later employed as salesman for BUTLER Brothers and was also for a time employed by the Curtis Publishing Company. In the fall of 1922 he re-entered Drake University with a view of completing the law course.

Charles SIMPSON was known in the community where he grew to manhood, and among his associates wherever he went, was a true christian young man. In boyhood he became a member of the Methodist church of this city, in which church he held membership at the time of his death. He was a member of the American Legion, of the Kappa Lambda fraternity of Drake University and of the local Masonic lodge. He was to have been initiated into the Knight Templars the day the body was brought to Mount Ayr.

Charles SIMPSON was a bright and promising young man, possessing a fine personality. He was studious, ambitious, energetic and always optimistic as to the future. The following quotations from his pocket diary is indicative of the hopeful outlook he held of life:

"This isn't a tough world. It is a beautiful world; it is a peach of a world, if you think right, live right, and do right and find out what is the most important thing in life to obtain. That is happiness. The way to get happiness is to create it; the way to keep it is to spread it."

CARD OF THANKS.

We take this means of expressing our sincere gratitude to our many friends and neighbors. We thank the American Legion boys and the Masonic lodge for their many acts of sympathy and assistance on the sad occasion of the sudden death of our dear Charlie. We thank the Legion boys, the Masonic lodge, the Eastern Stars Order, the P.E.O. chapter and all friends for the beautiful flowers. We thank the out of town friends and Charlie's classmates for their presence and for the letters and telegrams of condolence from Drake University faculty. We wish to express appreciation. Again we thank you one and all.

Mr. and Mrs. W. A. SIMPSON.
Marie Ida SIMPSON.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, 2008