WELLS, John Cleland - b. December 5, 1920 - d. April 2, 2003

[genealogynut]

Winfield Daily Courier
Thursday, April 3, 2003

HOWARD--- John Cleland Wells, 82, of Howard, died April 2, 2003, at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus in Wichita.

Services will be 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the First Baptist Church.  The Revs. Dois Mix and Loren Scott will officiate. Burial will be in Grace Lawn Cemetery.

Memorial have been established with the Howard Senior Center and First Baptist Church.  Contributions may be made through Zimmerman Funeral Home.

Wells was born Dec. 5, 1920, on a farm northeast of Howard, to Mary Ann (Richards) and John J. Wells.  He attended Fairview rural school and graduated from Howard High School.

On April 18, 1943, he married Geneva Marie Nigh in Howard, and they farmed northeast of Howard for many years.  In 1959 he became employed at Brown's Feed Store in Howard and worked there for more than 18 years.  He was later employed by the Elk County Road Department before retiring in 1985 to take care of his wife who had Alzheimer's disease.  She died on Nov. 6, 1996.

On Oct. 7, 1997, he married Helen Clois (Patterson) Stockdale in Howard.  There they made their home until his death.

Wells was a longtime member of the Sunflower Grange and a member of the Fiat School Board.  He had served as president of the Nuitrition Council and president of the Howard senior center Board and had been president of the Elk County Council on Aging since June 1987.

He served on the Ten County Board of Directors of Friendship Meals and was a member of the Aging Projects Board from January 1994 to December 2002, serving one year as president.

Wells was an active member of the Howard First Presbyterian Church where he served as a Youth Fellowship Group sponsor and Sunday school teacher.  After the church closed, he became a member of the First Baptist Church of Howard and served as a deacon and Sunday school teacher.

Survivors include his wife, Helen Wells, Howard; a son Gary Wells, Eureka; a daughter, Sandra Ball, Winfield; two stepdaughters, Flora Bishop and Edith Johnson, both of Wichita; two brothers, Virgil Wells, Boring, Ore., and Wilbert Wells, Wichita; three sisters, Dorothy Coleman, Marion, Shirley Blake, Dodge City, and Helen Hastings, Wichita; nine grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren; two step great grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.