Van Doubek

Van Doubek, 80, died Jan. 8, 2005, at Pratt Regional Medical Center.

Funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at First United Methodist Church, with the Rev. Kendal Utt presiding. Friends may call from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at Larrison Mortuary. Interment, with Masonic rites, and military honors by the U.S. Army, Fort Riley, will be in Greenlawn Cemetery.

He was born July 29, 1924, at Coats, the son of Van and Fannie V. Street Doubek. He graduated from Coats High School. He was an Army Air Corps veteran of World War II, serving as a sergeant with the 509th Composite Group under Col. Paul V. Tibbetts in the Pacific Theater, where his squadron delivered the first atomic bomb to the Enola Gay on Tinian Island.

He worked for Lion Oil Company and later owned Doubek Monument Company. Following his retirement he was active with RSVP as a bus driver. He was a member of First United Methodist Church in Pratt and VFW Post No. 1362. He was a member and past grand master of Kilwinning Lodge No. 265, receiving his 50-year pin in 2004.

On June 4, 1949, he married Ellen Louise Hamar in Pratt. She died Sept. 29, 1994.

Survivors include: one son, Robert, Denver, Colo.; two daughters, Nora Jean Shorock, Great Bend and Carol Ann Lewis, Castle Rock, Colo.; three grandsons, James Butler, Goddard, Tom Shorock, Lawrence, and Kent Holder, Salina; and two great-grandchildren, Raquel and Robert Butler, Goddard; three brothers, Doyle, Bella Vista, Ark., Dr. Herbert Dale, Belleville, and Edwin, Hoisington.

Memorials may be given to American Red Cross, in care of the mortuary, 300 Country Club Road, Pratt, KS 67124.