Lester George Griffith

Lester George Griffith, 89, died at Kimball Health Service on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010.

Lester was born Feb. 9, 1920, on a farm south of Clarinda, Iowa. He was the first son of Harry Stillwell and Gertrude Hazel (Patee) Griffith. The family moved to western Nebraska in 1921 when Lester was one year old. He attended school in the Dix area and high school in Dix. He married Dorothy Darline Spencer in Laramie, Wyo., on June 3, 1939, a local teacher who lived with the family teaching in the local school. Growing up as a farmer’s son, he became a farmer himself and farmed all his life until his retirement. No matter what the weather was, he related it to the crops that it would raise. In the late 1950s he worked as a mechanic for a local implement dealer in Kimball. Later, in the late ’60s and early ’70s he was a deputy sheriff in Kimball County. During this same time, he sold and repaired business band radios in his shop on the farm. He was also a dealer for Crustbuster farm equipment. As necessity is the mother of invention, he manufactured his own repairs and other ideas only to have similar items patented by others in later years. In the early ’50s and ’60s he owned several airplanes and received his commercial license only to stop flying because of failing eyesight. There is still evidence of his registered airstrip on the farm northeast of Kimball. Besides farming, one of his greatest loves was camping. He also spent many winters as a winter Texan, visiting with new acquaintances and escaping the cold Nebraska winters.

He is survived by his wife of 70 years; his sons, David and Douglas Griffith; and daughters, Marcia (Ray) Buescher, Sharon and Jeanne Griffith. Also surviving are 11 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his sisters, Hazel Hughes, Margaret Kilgore and Mabel Griffith; and his brother, Paul Griffith.

Funeral services were Wednesday, Jan. 27, at the Cantrell Funeral Home in Kimball with Reverend Roger Gillming officiating. Burial was in the Dix Cemetery.

Memorials have been established to the American Diabetes Foundation. Cantrell Funeral Home was in charge of the arrangements.