Alfred ‘Doc’ Mathias

Mr. Mathias died Monday, May 24, 2004, at Topeka Health Care Center.

He was born Oct. 27, 1914, in Ottawa, the son of David L. and Mary Ada Kennedy Mathias. He was a lifelong resident of Franklin County until he moved to Tecumseh in 2002.

Mr. Mathias was a farmer. He also worked at Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in De Soto during World War II. He worked for Santa Fe Railroad in the early 1950s and for Osburn’s Greenhouse in Ottawa in the mid-1950s. He was a machinist for Gulf & Western, now Ottawa Truck, for eight years until he retired in 1976.

He married Norena Pearl Ritchal on July 22, 1936, in Ottawa. She died July 21, 2001.

A grandson also died earlier.

Survivors include two daughters, Jo Ann Harding, Tecumseh, and Marjorie A. Mathias, Osawatomie; two sons, David L., Carbondale, and Leo F., Blue Mound; three sisters, Ruth Rathjen and Mildred Brown, both of Princeton, and Nellie Carey, Kansas City, Kan.; 13 grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; and six great-great-grandchildren.

Friends may call from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and from 8:30 a.m. until the service hour Friday at the mortuary, where the family will receive them from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The family suggests memorials to Franklin County Support Group for American Diabetes Assn., sent in care of the mortuary, 235 S. Hickory, Ottawa 66067.

E-mail condolences may be sent to dengelmortuary@sbcglobal.net.