Paul Rankin

ST. LOUIS - Paul Lester Rankin, 90, died Nov. 18, 2004, at the Village North Medical Center in St. Louis.

Born July 27, 1914, in Stoddard County, son of the late John Franklin Rankin and Bertha Ora Rankin, he served with the 505th Service Squadron Air Transport Command and the 61st Air Service Group. After separating from the U.S. Army on Jan. 1, 1946, at Jefferson Barracks, he had worked for Laclede Gas in St. Louis and was an airplane mechanic for Remmert and Warner Airport and the Spirit of St. Louis Airport. Following his retirement, he was a custodian for a Catholic church and school in St. Louis. He was a member of the Ferguson Church of the Nazarene in St. Louis.

On Jan. 8, 1941, at Pendleton, Ore., he married Mildred Virginia Lawrence who survives of the home.

Other survivors include: one son, Kenneth Lawrence Rankin of St. Louis; two daughters, Donna Kay Ash of Tulsa, Okla., and Paula Marie Fox of Ellijay, Ga.; his sister, Imogene Butler of Matthews; and eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by two brothers Glenn Otto Rankin and James William "Jay" Rankin.

Burial was conducted Tuesday at the Triplett (South Pleasant Valley) Cemetery.

Paid obituary