Arthur L. Spraker

Arthur L. Spraker, 84, of 806 East Monroe in Mt. Pleasant, died at 3:20 p.m. on July 19 at the Henry County Health Center.

The funeral service will be at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 22, at the First United Methodist Church with the Rev. Kiboko Kiboko officiating. Burial will be at Forest Home Cemetery with full military rites by the Henry County Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #2561 and the Bob Tribby American Legion Post #58. Visitation will begin at the Beatty Funeral Home at noon on Friday, July 21, with the family present from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Memorials have been established to the Midwest Old Threshers Foundation and the First United Methodist Church.

Mr. Spraker was born November 27, 1915, in Frederick, S.D., the son of Arthur Leroy and Minnie Brown Spraker. He married Anna Lorraine Clark on June 18, 1937, and on December 12, 1959, he married Pauline Pounds Ingwersen in Mt. Pleasant.

He was a meat cutter who worked at Walgren?s Grocery in Mt. Pleasant and retired after 15 years at Hy-Vee Grocery in Mt. Pleasant.

He was a World War II Veteran, having served in the South Pacific theater aboard the U.S.S. Sanborn, a fast attack transport. He witnessed the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima in February 1945.

He was a lifelong member of both the Henry County Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #2561 and the American Legion Bob Tribby Post #58.

He was a charter member of the local Moose Lodge #1081, an active member of the Mt. Pleasant Men?s Bowling Association serving as secretary/treasurer for more than 30 years and coaching junior bowlers for more than 35 years.

He had been an active volunteer at Midwest Old Threshers for a number of years, earning a 1,000 hour volunteer pin. His activities included assisting with school tours, volunteering during reunions in the information booths, as well as helping with distribution of souvenirs to various locations.

Survivors include his wife; one son, Clark ?Corky? Spraker of West Burlingon; one daughter, Jeanie Hilbrant of Muscatine; one stepson, Stevan Ingwersen of Blue Grass; nine grandchildren; and ten great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents; two brothers, Emmet and Henry; four sisters, Glenna Spraker, Myrtle Litton, Hazel Dunlavy, and Amy Hutchinson; one stepson, Keith Ingwersen; and one granddaughter, Jennifer Welch.