Earl I. Bell

Earl L. Bell, 93, Sun­bury, died Tues­day morn­ing, June 5, 2012, at the home of his son.

He was born on Decem­ber 2, 1918, in Delaware County to the late Fred W. and Nel­lie (Ash­brook) Bell. A 1938 grad­u­ate of Delaware Willis High School, he also attended The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity dur­ing the depression.

Earl worked at Cur­tis Wright in Colum­bus as a tool and die maker where dive bombers were man­u­fac­tured before join­ing the Navy in 1944. After World War II he worked for Gen­eral Motors as a tool and die maker in Colum­bus before help­ing his wife start Sun­bury Clean­ers in 1948 and later John­stown Clean­ers in 1951 which they ran for 32 years. He opened his first Laun­dro­mat in 1954 before they had coin oper­ated washers.

Earl was a mem­ber of the Sun­bury Chris­t­ian Church, Amer­i­can Legion, a 50-plus year mem­ber of the Masonic Lodge, for­mer Lion and started the John­stown Busi­ness Asso­ci­a­tion. Earl enjoyed boat­ing, travel, and he espe­cially enjoyed his horses, includ­ing a world record holder and a par­tic­i­pant in the Lit­tle Brown Jug, which fol­lowed a fam­ily tra­di­tion of rac­ing going back to his grandfather.

He is pre­ceded by his wife of 61 years, Dorothy R. (Kin­nell ) Bell, whom he mar­ried Novem­ber 28, 1942, she passed April 3, 2003; a sis­ter, Hari­ett Milla; broth­ers, Harold, Wymond, Fred, Rev. Woodrow, Edward and Ker­mit; and by a daughter-in-law, Grace (Tay­lor) Bell.

He is sur­vived by a son, Den­nis Bell of Sun­bury; a sis­ter, Ellen (Bell) Vaughn of West­er­ville; a grand­daugh­ter, Amy Bricker of Fort Laud­erdale, Florida; as well as by cousins, nieces and nephews.

Call­ing hours were held Fri­day (June 8, 2012) at the DeVore-Snyder Funeral Home, Ohio 3 at 61, Sun­bury, where ser­vices were held Sat­ur­day (June 9, 2012) with Pas­tor Mike Brat­ten officiating.

Inter­ment fol­lowed in Sun­bury Memo­r­ial Park.

Memo­r­ial con­tri­bu­tions can be made to the Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety, 5555 Frantz Rroad, Dublin, Ohio 43017.

Con­do­lences may be expressed at < www.snyderfuneralhomes.com >.

Posted by Gary Henery on Jun 13 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.