Funeral for Earl Crites Jr. of Cape Girardeau will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel. Burial will be in Memorial Park, with graveside service by VFW Post 3838.

Friends may call at the chapel from 4-8 p.m. today.

Crites, 73, died Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

He was born Oct. 13, 1924, in Cape Girardeau, son of Earl Herman and Hannah Jane Statler Crites Sr. He and Betty Heuer were married in November 1963 in Cape Girardeau. She died March 14, 1958. He then married Naomi Smith Oct. 7, 1962, in Cape Girardeau. Crites later married Dorothy Randal.

Crites was a graduate of the former College High School. He was a self-employed contractor, and owned and operated SEMO Fence Co.

He was a member of the Church of Christ in Jackson, and VFW Post 3838 in Cape Girardeau. He served with the U.S. Army in the South Pacific, Philippines, and Guadalcanal, and received a Bronze Star.

Survivors include a son, Jeffrey Crites of Cape Girardeau; five daughters, Karen Horn and Diane Dodd of Cape Girardeau, Janet Hudson of Searcy, Ark., Sherry Schaper of Ottawa, Kan., Vanita Crites of Jackson; a brother, Richard Crites of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; a sister, Mary Henry of St. Louis; 15 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by a son and a brother.