HERBERT PRATER

McCLURE, Ill. Funeral service for Herbert Prater of McClure will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Chapel in Cape Girardeau, Mo. The Rev. Raymond Oxford will officiate, with burial in Rose Hill Cemetery at Thebes.

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

Prater, 86, died Wednesday, June 9, 1993, at Life Care Center in Jonesboro.

He was born Feb. 11, 1907, at McClure, son of Charlie and Maude Jackson Prater. He and Ollie Busby were married Feb. 14, 1927, in Cairo. She died Feb. 1, 1985.

Prater was employed by Missouri Pacific Railroad 27 years, and by Leming Lumber Co. in Cape Girardeau 12 years, retiring in 1972. He was a member of Beech Grove Baptist Church at Thebes.

Survivors include four sons, Herbert, Bill and Jerry Prater of Thebes, James Prater of McClure; three daughters, Sandra Hale and Maxine Croy of McClure, Shirley Hale of Thebes; a brother, Howard Prater of Santa Rosa, Calif.; three sisters, Helen Brown of Mounds, Pansy Fitzgerald of Thebes, Clara Johnson of Beatrice Neb.; 21 grandchildren; 29 great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandchild.

He was preceded in death by a son and daughter.