BOWER, Leon C.

Leon Bower

      Leon Bower, 68, 502 N. Grant, died
Thursday morning at Johnson County Memorial
Hospital where he was taken by the Edinburgh
rescue unit after he became ill while driving
north on Highway 31 and his car crashed into
the Ermal Blackwell home a mile north of
Edinburgh.
      Bower was driving north on Highway 31
when he became ill and turned his car in the
median.  Heading south, the car left the road
and crossed a plowed field crashing into the
north side of the Blackwell home at the rear.
Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell were at home at the
time of the accident but were not injured.
      Mr. Bower was a retired employee of Como
Plastics, Inc., in Columbus.
      Funeral services were conducted by the
Rev. Eldon Ernst at 1:00 p.m. Monday at Eskew
Funeral Home.  A Masonic memorial service
was conducted at the funeral home Sunday
evening.  Burial was a Rest Haven Cemetery in
Edinburgh.  Serving as pallbearers were Hoyt
Parmer, Howard Webster, Lewis Huntsman,
Max Breeding, Claude Trent and Lloyd Graham.
      Bower was born at Berwick, Pa., May 18,
1913, the son of Warren P. and Bertha Bower.
He married Delores Graham in January 1951
and she survives.  He was a deacon and member
of Nineveh Christian Church and member of
Nineveh Masonic Lodge.  He had served with
the 38th Division of the Pennsylvania National
Guard at Indiantown, Pa.
      Other survivors include two children, Scott
Bower and Carol Butz, both of Berwick; two step-
children, Sharon Mason of Whiteland and Garry
Hamilton of Franklin; three brothers, Walter,
Dewight, and Warren Bower, Jr., all of Berwick;
a sister, Harriet Davis of Berwick, 16 grand-
children and one great-grandchild.

Submitted by Mark E. Wirey