Clarence E. “Swede” Erickson

Funeral services for Clarence E. “Swede” Erickson, 78, Lawrence, will be at 2 p.m. Monday at Warren-McElwain Mortuary. Burial with military honors will follow in Memorial Park Cemetery.Mr. Erickson died Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007, at his daughter’s home north of Lawrence.He was born June 12, 1929, in Lawrence, the son of Clarence and Cecil Smith Erickson. He graduated from Liberty Memorial High School in Lawrence and later graduated with a teaching certificate from Emporia State Teachers’ College in 1947. He was a lifelong Lawrence resident.Mr. Erickson served in the U.S. Army from 1948 to 1950 as a corporal during the Korean War and also served in the Kansas Army National Guard.He was a manager at Bowersock Power Co., taught in the machine shop at Lansing State Penitentiary and worked at Cooperative Farm Chemicals in Lawrence as a maintenance foreman for 15 years before he retired. He then worked as a bus driver for the Laidlaw Co. for 13 years.Mr. Erickson was a member of the Eagles Lodge in Lawrence, a lifetime member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Alford-Clarke Post 852, and he volunteered with the County Fair Swim Club for 35 years.He married Betty Denny on Feb. 20, 1950, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. She survives, of the home.Other survivors include a daughter, Lea Chaffin, Lawrence; two sons, Eric Erickson and A.D. Gaines, both of Lawrence; and five grandchildren, Ashley, Katelin and Kellian Harrell, and Paul and Chelsea Chaffin.The family will receive friends from 7 p.m. to p.m. 8:30 p.m. Sunday at the mortuary.The family suggests memorials to the Swede Erickson Memorial Fund, sent in care of the mortuary.Online condolences may be sent at www.warrenmcelwain.com.