Obituaries / LJWorld.com

Obituaries

Celebration of Life services for Robert Richards Bigsby, 84, Lawrence will be held at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Stony Point Hall, 1514 N. 600 Road, Baldwin City. Private inurnment will be at Memorial Park Cemetery in Lawrence.
Mr. Bigsby died Friday, Oct. 29, 2010, at Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center in Topeka.
He was born April 22, 1926 in Lawrence, the son of Ambrose and Esther Erma Richards Bigsby.
He was a lifelong dairyman and farmer and resident of Douglas County. He lived on the family farm south of Lawrence for 53 years.
Mr. Bigsby was a 1943 graduate of Liberty Memorial High School and received the Kiwanis National Award for being the high school student who did the most toward the war effort, farming 190 acres and raising 500 head of sheep. He received the FFA Star Farmer Award in 1942.
He was a dairy project leader for Vinland Valley 4-H for a number of years. His family received the Douglas County 4-H Family of the Year award in 1970. The Bigsby family together had more than 90 years of participation with the Douglas County 4-H program.
Mr. Bigsby served on the state board of directors for the Kansas Holstein Association for a number of years, and received the Kansas Holstein Honorary Lifetime Award in September 2000. He was also a founding committee member of the Douglas County Rural Water District No. 2 and served on the water board for many years.
He and his wife loved to travel to Texas and Mexico most winters after they retired from farming. They always enjoyed being home for the holidays with their family.
He married Dorothy Jean Henderson on Jan. 23, 1945, in Lawrence. She preceded him in death on May 23, 2008.
He was also preceded in death by his sister, Helen Elizabeth Schafer.
Survivors include two daughters, Karen Finstad of Lenexa, and Carol Keen of Baldwin City; one son, Robert Jr., of Baldwin City; one brother, Harold, Fort Worth, Texas; four grandchildren, Patrick Hurley, Marci Werne, Kalli Ehrhardt and Quinton Keen; and five great-grandchildren.
The family suggests memorials to the Douglas County 4-H Foundation, sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13th St., Lawrence, KS 66044.
Online condolences may be sent at warrenmcelwain. com. For directions to Stony Point Hall, visit stonypointhall.com.