Claude A. Mears

No public services are planned for Claude A. Mears Jr., 72, Lawrence. He will be cremated.Mr. Mears died Saturday, July 1, 2006, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.He was born Aug. 27, 1933, in Amoret, Mo., the son of Claude Alfred Sr. and Vera Irene Lynch Mears. He graduated in 1951 from high school in Mountain Grove, Mo., and attended Finley Engineering School in Kansas City, Mo., for two years.Mr. Mears served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1957. He worked in management for A&P grocery stores from 1957 to 1971 in Topeka, Kansas City and Hiawatha. He and his family then opened and operated Mears Grocery in Robinson. In 1978, he began working as a billing clerk for Affiliated Foods in Elwood. He retired in 1996 and moved to Lawrence.He married Vonda Louise Kershner on June 13, 1959, in Miami, Okla. She survives, of the home.Other survivors include a son, Dennis and wife Melanie, Robinson; a daughter, Denise Gibson and husband Bruce, Lawrence; two sisters, Jean Thornton, Amoret, and Carol Cyrus, Excello, Mo.; and six grandchildren, Chad, Amanda, Ryan, Kelly, Kyle and Kaitlin.He was preceded in death by a sister, Claudette Mears.The family suggests memorials to the Palliative Care Unit at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. They may be sent in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home, which is in charge of arrangements.Online condolences may be sent at www.rumsey-yost.com.