Gray, Keith

Keith Gray, 85, died Saturday, March 23, 2013, at St. Luke's Hospital, Cedar Rapids, following a brief illness. Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 28, at First Congregational United Church of Christ, Anamosa. Interment will be in Riverside Cemetery, with military honors. Friends may call from 4 until 8 p.m. Wednesday at Goettsch Funeral Home, Anamosa.

Surviving are six children, Flete (Pat) Gray, Maplewood, Minn., Jennifer (Mike) Brown, Lowden, Clint (Monica) Gray, Monticello, Mat (Marilyn) Gray, Wyo., Gail (Andy) Coleman, Cedar Rapids, and Corrie (Calvin) Stanley, Berryton, Kan.; 16 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and his sister, Rosemary (Dr. John) Bailey, Anamosa.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Helen; and three brothers, Charles, David and Stuart.

Keith Jacob Gray was born Jan. 31, 1928, in Anamosa, Iowa, the son of Charles and Esther Van Slyke Gray. Keith graduated from the Anamosa Community Schools with the class of 1946. He then started farming with his parents. On Aug. 15, 1946, Keith Gray married Helen Maude Schuchman at the Gray family home in Anamosa. The couple farmed in the Center Junction area. When Keith was drafted in 1955 into the United States Army, the couple lived near Washington, D.C., at Fort Belvoir and later at Fort Barry in San Francisco. They returned to the farm near Center Junction, where they raised their family. Keith retired from active farming in 1992. He continued to live on the farm after Helen's death in 2007 and had only recently moved to the Anamosa Care Center.

Keith was a member of First Congregational United Church of Christ, Anamosa, and had belonged to the Center Junction Presbyterian Church. He had also been a Boy Scout leader for the Amber Boy Scout Troop, and had served on the Center Junction Co-op board.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been established.

Thoughts, memories and condolences may be left at www.goettschonline.com.

Published March 25, 2013 in The Gazette