Claude E. Messner

Funeral services for Claude E. Messner, 81, Caney, will be at 2 p.m. today at Trinity Lutheran Church in Caney. Burial will be in Sunnyside Cemetery in Caney.Mr. Messner died Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, at Jane Phillips Medical Center in Bartlesville, Okla.He was born Dec. 20, 1926, in Arkansas City, Kan., the son of Adam John and Fern Marie Barnes Messner. He graduated from Arkansas City High School. Mr. Messner owned Messner Farms and was a longtime leader in the purebred swine industry. He sold livestock to 42 states and 11 foreign countries. He also judged livestock events throughout the U.S. He attended Trinity Lutheran Church in Caney.He married Eleanor Jean Orlowski on Sept. 4, 1948, in Burden. She died May 20, 2001.Survivors include two daughters, Gail Padden, Lawrence, and Patty Anderson, Caney; two sons, Dwayne and Darrel Messner, both of Caney; 11 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and a guardian granddaughter.The family suggests memorials to the Claude and Eleanor Messner Agriculture Scholarship Fund, sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13th St., Lawrence, KS 66044.Online condolences may be sent at www.warrenmcelwain.com, subject: Messner.