Graydon E. Horath (99) of Effingham

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Published on July 10 2017 7:42 am

Graydon “Foots” Horath, of Effingham, IL, passed away on July 9, 2017 at Evergreen Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Effingham at the young age of 99.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, July 13 at Bauer Funeral Home in Effingham with burial in Oakridge Cemetery with military graveside rites. Visitation will be held Wednesday evening from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Bauer Funeral Home in Effingham. Memorial donations may be made to Watson United Methodist Church or to Green Cemetery.

Online condolences may be left by clicking here.

He was born September 14, 1917 on the family farm in Dieterich, IL. In Graydon’s teenage years, he rode the rails of the Midwest as a hobo seeking work in the wheat fields, and ultimately ended up in Washington State. During World War II, he served with the A and B Companies of the 176th Construction Engineers in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. He married Mary Zimmerman in 1948. In November 1948, he began work at Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company. They lived in numerous towns in Southern Illinois, as well as Kentucky and Wisconsin. In 1960, Graydon went to work for Dowell/Schlumberger in Argentina, where he and Mary lived for 2 ½ years. Returning home to rural Dietrich, he farmed for a year and then gained employment at the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant in Wilmington, Illinois. As the plant was closing, he took a job on a Mississippi River tugboat as a deck hand. Following that, he worked in a Styrofoam processing plant in Florida and Wisconsin. He has written and published a number of books during his lifetime. He was a man of many talents and built beautiful furniture from lumber harvested on the family farm.

Graydon is survived by his daughter-in-law, Barbara Gast of Manhattan, IL; grandchildren, David Fellows (Karen) of Freeburg, IL and Jerry Fellows (Christine) of Sedona, AZ; great-grandchildren, Ashley Adrian (Zachary) of Freeburg, IL, Tyler Fellows (Melissa) of Freeburg, IL, Christopher Fellows of Phoenix, AZ, Anna Fellows of Tempe, AZ, and Joseph Goldenberg of Flagstaff, AZ, as well as numerous cousins and countless friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Nellie Horath; wife, Mary (Zimmerman) Horath; son, Gary Fellows and sister, Eva Jenner.

Graydon will be missed by many.