DONGOLA, Ill. -- Funeral service for Wesley Joseph "Joe" Ford of Charlottesville, Va., will be held at 2 p.m. today at First Baptist Church in Charlottesville. Dr. H. Cowen Ellis and Joel Jenkins will officiate. Burial will be in Holly Memorial Gardens.

Ford, 68, died Tuesday, Aug. 12, 1997, at his home.

He was born Feb. 13, 1929, in Dongola, son of Elmer J. and Mary Walker Ford. He married the former Bonnie Fisher.

Ford was a graduate of Southern Illinois University and the College of Mortuary Science in St. Louis. He moved to Charlottesville in 1960. He had worked for State Farm Insurance, and from 1974 until retiring in April he was a research administrator for the University of Virginia.

He was a member of First Baptist Church in Charlottesville, and served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

Survivors include his wife; two sons, Keith and Bruce Ford; a sister, Helen Logue of Carbondale; and two grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, a sister, and a grandson.

Announcement courtesy of Crain Funeral Home in Dongola.