Joseph Harold Traphagan

Mass This Thursday for Joe Traphagan

Rosary services for Joseph Harold Traphagan were being recited at 8:00 p.m. at the Peet Chapel this Wednesday evening. Mass will be this Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. at St. Leo's Catholic Church with Rev. Colm Wood officiating. Military honors will be accorded by VFW members. Burial will be made in the Lusk cemetery.

Pall bearers are Harold Nolan, John Cain, Ray Pate, Tod Pate, Elwood Traphagan, Fred Pate and Jiggs Pate, all nephews of the deceased.

Honorary pallbearers are Hugh Brown, Albert Beardsley, Louis Krejci, Jimmy Krejci, Al Lagerberger, Harold Waddell, Wm. "Bill" Croft, Julius Peterson, Scott Sides, Chuck Vaughan, Dick Presnall, Ray Pearce, Ted Schmidt, George Prell, A. D. "Flores" Kruse, Bill Magoon, Luther Penfield Sr., James Thompson and Woodson Graham.

Joseph Harold Traphagan was born February 21, 1896, on a farm in Red Willow County, near McCook, Neb. He died Sunday, Aug 19, at the Veterans Administration hospital in Denver after being on the critical list for a week.

He enlisted in the Army, October 3, 1917, and trained at Ft. Riley, Kan. He served overseas with the 9th Division in the last drive in France and also served in the Army Occupation of Germany. He was discharged in June 1919 and returned to farming in Nebraska in 1920.

Mr. Traphagan came to Laramie in 1922 and then to Lusk where he looked for a homestead. He worked in the oil field at Lance Creek and took up a homestead north of Lance Creek in 1925, proving up on the same, while working in the oil field. He worked for the Ohio (Marathon) and Continental Oil Companies for 30 years.

He resided at the family home on the ranch north of Lance Creek until moving to Lusk in 1971 because of ill health.

He married Geraldine Faye Trotter on October 18, 1939, at Sidney, Nebraska. They were the parents of twin daughters who died at birth, and Mrs. Lewis (JoEllen) Landkamer of Lance Creek, Mrs. Margy Davis and Mrs. Pat Trujillo, both of California. He is also survived by a grandson, Danny Joe Bayne, who has made his home with the Traphagans since a baby; 9 other grandchildren and one sister of Minden, Neb. He leaves many nieces and nephews and a host of wonderful friends to whom his home was always opened to.

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