11/24/1996
Services for Vernon Bruce, 72, of Knoxville, who died November 27, at the
Veterans Medical Center in Iowa City, were held December 2, 1996, at First Presbyterian
Church in Knoxville.
Burial was at Graceland Cemetery in Knoxville. Military honors
were accorded by Baty-Tucker Post #168, American Legion and John Myers Post #3519,
Veterans of Foreign Wars. The Rev. Ken MacLeod officiated at the services. Music
was provided by John Crawford, organist, and Jim Kidder, organist. Pallbearers were
Wayne Westberg, Chuck Young, Ron Douglas, Chick Rankin, Gene Hayes, and Cliff De
Moss. Honorary bearers were Scott Evans, Gene Sinnard, Paul Wright, E.V. Feldman,
Joe Tonda, Frank Zickel and Ralph Porter.
Vernon was born July 14, 1924, in Benson,
Minn., the son of Carl Leonard and Hazel LaMira Jones Bruce. He graduated from Knoxville
High School in 1942, and from Iowa State University in Ames, in 1950.
He was united
in marriage to Margery May Brandsberg Kovacic on March 28, 1958, in Knoxville. He
was a retired grain inspector for the U.S. government. He also served with the U.S.
Army Infantry during World War II in Europe.
He was a long-time member of the First
Presbyterian Church in Knoxville. He was also a member of the Kiwanis Morning Club,
the Senior Citizen's Board, the Knoxville Concert Association Board, the Marion
County Genealogical Society, and the Clean Community Committee. He received two
State Historical Society Awards.
He was preceded in death by his parents. He is
survived by his wife of Knoxville; one sister, Marilyn Haning and her husband, Robert, of Apache Junction,
Arizona; one step-son, R. Timothy Kovacic of Iowa City; one step-daughter, Sue E. Kovacic
Otto and her husband, Donald and son Robert, all of Iowa City; and one grandchild, two nieces, Cindy Nielsen of Lansing, Kansas and Mindy Lanphier of Hope, Arkansas; one nepew, Burce Haning of Elbert, Colorado; and many other relatives and friends.
Memorials may be made to the First Presbyterian
Church. Arrangements were made by Evans-McCleery Funeral Home in Knoxville.