Ralph D. Bitner

Ralph Bitner DURANT, Iowa - Ralph D. Bitner, 78, of Durant, died Sunday, Sept. 17, 2000, at Genesis Medical Center East in Davenport. Services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Durant. The Rev. David Lawson will officiate. Organist will be Mabyn Fox and vocalist will be Henry Bentley. Pallbearers will be at Richard Rohloff, Aaron Warner, Larry Farmer, Kenneth Farmer, Emil Deisser, and Darrell Fromm. Honorary pallbearers will be Bernard Geurink, and Bill Krummel. Burial will be at Durant Cemetery with military rites by Durant American Legion Post No. 430. Visitation will be from 4-7 p.m. today at Bentley Funeral Homes in Durant and one hour prior to services Wednesday at the church. Mr. Bitner was born on July 10, 1922, in Delta, the son of Orval and Elsie Bitner. He married Vivian J. Brooks on Dec. 18, 1978, in Las Vegas, Nev. He served in the Army Air Corp in the Pacific Theater. He then served in the United States Air Force during the Korean Conflict. He graduated from the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy. He owned his own pharmacy in Bloomfield. He worked at various pharmacies including Westfair Drug in Durant. He was a m...[more]

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er of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Durant, a Mason and member of the Scottish Rite in Davenport, and the Durant American Legion Post No. 430. Survivors include his wife, Vivian Bitner of Durant; a daughter, Vicki Bitner of Davenport; a son, Ralph Bitner Jr. and his wife, Maryanne, of Cedar Rapids; two stepsons, Daniel Brooks of California and Jeffrey Brooks and his wife, Diane, of Montana; three sisters, Helen Farmer of Wyoming, Ill., Dorothy Reed of Torrance, Calif., Marilyn Henry of San Diego, Calif.; and two grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his father, Oran Bitner; his mother, Elsie Rohloff; and a sister, Luretha Shaffer.