Ralph Edward VanSickle, Emporia
1925 - 2007
Ralph Edward VanSickle of rural Emporia died Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007, at Newman Regional Health in Emporia. He was 82.
The funeral service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home. The service will be conducted by the Rev. Charity Sandstrom, pastor of First Friends Church, and the Rev. Galen Hinshaw of Rose Hill, former pastor of First Friends. Burial will be in Cottonwood Cemetery.
A full obituary will be published later.
The family of Ralph Edward VanSickle will meet friends from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home Chapel. Mr. VanSickle of rural Emporia died Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007 at Newman Regional Health. He was 82.
The funeral service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home Chapel. The Revs. Charity Sandstrom and Galen Hinshaw will conduct the service, assisted by Mr. VanSickle’s grandson the Rev. Brent VanSickle and the Revs. Tomas Martinez and Richard Buck. Burial will be in the Cottonwood Friends Cemetery .
An entrepreneur, Mr. VanSickle was a realtor and auctioneer for almost 40 years and a dairyman and rancher in his early years. He pioneered the auction method of selling real estate in Lyon County and mentored several young people to help them learn the auction business.
The son of Leroy and Bertha Smith VanSickle, he was born Feb. 18, 1925, in rural Emporia. He married Grace Eileen Schwindt on May 5, 1946, at Ebenezer Evangelical Church west of Olpe.
Mr. VanSickle was a lifelong member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) Church and a member and elder of Emporia Friends Church. While living in the communities, he was a member of Cottonwood Friends Church and Twin Mound Friends Church, where he served as treasurer for many years along with serving on other committees in the church, Cottonwood Quarterly Meeting, Area Meeting and Yearly Meeting. He was a longtime member of the Emporia chapter of Gideons International.
He was president of the Emporia Realtors Association and named Realtor of the Year and was president of the Lyon County Historical Museum when the museum raised funds to move into the old Carnegie Library on Sixth Avenue.
Mr. VanSickle was a former member of the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Kansas and National Realtors and Auctioneers Associations. He served as community leader and tractor leader for the Sunnyside 4-H and was a member of the 4-H Alumni Association, Emporia Masonic Lodge and volunteered as a greeter at Newman Regional Health.
He is survived by his wife of 61 years, one son, Ray D. VanSickle of Newton; two daughters, Carol Schaefer of Emporia and Joan VanSickle Sloan of Maryville, Tenn.; six grandchildren, David Sloan of Maryville, Tenn., Nathan Sloan of Seymour, Tenn., Melodi Wood of Ringgold, La., Lisa Smallwood of Tulsa, Okla., Brent VanSickle of Alton, Ill., and Andrea Bazan of Red Oak, Texas; and one great grandson, Schaefer McKee Smallwood of Tulsa; one brother, Raymond L. VanSickle of Emporia ; two sisters, Evelyn Frazier of Emporia and Elsie Adams of Olathe.
A sister, Esther Rich, died earlier.
Memorial contributions to the Emporia Friends Church, Hand In Hand Hospice, the American Cancer Society or Gideons International, may be sent in care of the funeral home, P.O. Box 175, Emporia, KS 66801.