Obituary

Funeral services for Ralph D. Madera, 83, will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday in Wood-Dunning Colonial Chapel with Dr. Travis Hart, pastor of First Baptist Church, officiating. Burial will be in Hale Center Cemetery by Wood-Dunning Funeral Home. Mr. Madera died Monday, Feb. 28, 2005, in Covenant Hospital. He was born on Jan. 24, 1922, in Hubbard, the son of Elma and Lillie Perry Madera. He graduated from Cotton Center High School in 1939. He served with the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and in Korea as an aerial engineer. He was awarded the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross and eight Bronze Stars. He worked as a car and truck mechanic and as a mechanic on the Alaskan Pipeline. He was a past commander of the American Legion Post in Durango, Colo. His first wife, Willie Marie Madera, whom he married on Aug. 24, 1945, died May 4, 1991. He married Nadine Neagle on Sept. 7, 1999. Survivors include his wife; two daughters, Linda Seitz of Sacramento, Calif., and Connie Folsom of Flagstaff, Ariz.; a son and daughter-in-law, Ron and Janet Madera of Waco; a sister, Rheba Burgess of Lubbock; six grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and eight stepchildren. His parents; a brother, Lehmer Madera; three sisters, LaVerne Thornton, Margaret Bourland and Mary Simmons; and a son-in-law, George Seitz, also are deceased. The family suggests memorials to the American Heart Association.