Bramble services
Services for the Rev. Albert F. Bramble, 88, Lawrence, will be at 11 a.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church. Burial will be in Oak Hill Cemetery.
Bramble died Saturday, March 2, 2002, at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor.
He was born June 13, 1913, in Kansas City, Mo., the son of Fred and Frances (Seeley) Bramble. He grew up in Oil Hill, where he attended school through the eighth grade. He graduated from high school in 1932, and junior college in 1934, in El Dorado. He finished his college work at Baker University in 1936. He earned his theology degree at Boston University School of Theology in 1939. He received an honorary doctorate of divinity from Baker University in 1958.
Bramble joined the Kansas East Conference of the Methodist Church in 1940. He served as pastor at Danvers (Mass.) Methodist Church from 1940 to 1943, at Crawford County Larger Parish from 1944 to 1946, at Parsons First Methodist Church from 1946 to 1952, and at Lawrence First Methodist Church from 1952 to 1962. He served as district superintendent of the Independence District of the Kansas East Conference from 1952 to 1968. He maintained a special services relationship to the conference while working at the Kansas Office on Aging from 1969 until his retirement in 1977.
He was an early member of Lawrence League for the Practice of Democracy. He also served as delegate to a number of jurisdictional and general conferences of the Methodist Church. He served as director for various camps and institutes as part of his work in the conference.
After retirement, he helped to establish the Kansas Silver-Haired Legislature and served as its president from 1984 to 1986. He also helped to establish the Warm Hearts in Lawrence and received a Substantial Citizen Award from Lawrence Kiwanis Club in 1984. He was selected as the 1986 Distinguished Older Kansan at the 11th Annual Governor’s Conference on Aging and participated in the Senior Olympics in 1989 and 1991, placing second at nationals in 1989.
He married Sadie Elvira Crommett on Sept. 5, 1937, in El Dorado. She survives of the home.
Other survivors include two sons, Fred, Tulsa, Okla., and John, Leavenworth; two daughters, Ruth Humphrey, Wichita, and Mary Brodahl, Bellvue, Colo.; and eight grandchildren.
The family will receive friends from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Warren-McElwain Mortuary.
The family suggests memorials to First United Methodist Church or to Hospice Care of Douglas County, sent in care of the mortuary.
E-mail condolences may be sent to info@warrenmcelwain.com, subject: Bramble.