RAYMOND FLOWERS

Raymond Eugene Flowers, 90, was born June 17, 1929, the son of Ray and Erma Thomas Flowers of Bado.

Mr. Flowers passed away April 25, 2020, while residing at the Kabul Nursing Home, Cabool.

He attended Houston High School, graduating with the class of 1946.  He loved his high school sweetheart and after her high school graduation in May, he married Clara Belle Ragain, of the Upton community, on June 14, 1947.  

They moved to Waterloo, Iowa, soon after their marriage.  He was employed by the John Deere Tractor Co., for less than a year while Clara worked as a waitress.  The two returned to the Bado Community in 1948, where he resided until a stroke took his independent living and he entered the nursing home in 2009.

Mr. Flowers was a factory worker at the International Shoe Co., in Houston, starting in 1954.  When the shoe factory was acquired by the Brown Shoe Co., in 1963, he followed this work when it was moved to Cabool.  

When the opportunity came about to acquire a rural mail carrier contract with the U.S. Postal Service in 1969, he accepted this change of work, and served the Postal Service under contract until 1988.  In addition to his rural mail route in the morning, beginning in the early 1970s, he began association with the Sears retail store in Houston as an appliance repairman in the afternoon.  He continued an appliance repair service on his own and never retired, until his stroke.

He was beloved by family and the community over the years, known as either the mailman, the repairman or both.  He was a self-taught mechanic and was widely known in Texas County as a motorcycle mechanic.  

He enjoyed collecting and riding motorcycles and restoring autos for his children.  He also kept a healthy vegetable garden, supported his parents maintaining their farm and was a member of the Bado Community Church, a Sunday School teacher and for many years managed all financial and burial plot records and donations to the church cemetery.  

Mr. Flowers was preceded in death by his wife, Clara; parents, Ray and Erma; and brother, Gerald.

He is survived by his brother, Terry, Houston; daughter, Regina Kay of Springfield; and sons, Clinton of Jefferson City and Randy of Millersville; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren and other relatives.

Visitation is 11 a.m. until noon Friday, May 1, 2020, at Elliott-Gentry-Carder Funeral Home, Cabool. A private graveside service is Friday, May 1, 2020, at Bado Community Church Cemetery.

Send an online condolence at egcfuneralhome.com

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to Bado Cemetery Fund or Bado Community Church, 5800 Highway M, Cabool, Mo. 65689.