----Source: The Stark Family Scrapbook.

RITES FOR MRS. V. P. BARAGER ARE SATURDAY

The end of a lingering illness of more than a year came peacefully early Monday morning at 2:45 for Mrs. Vernon P. Barager, when she slept quietly away into eternity while at her home. It was only the last two days of her life that she was inactive and confined to her bed. Tuesday of the week she had enjoyed a short drive and a visit to the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Randall, close friends of the family. All of her family had been home with her since Friday night, with the exception of one daughter, Joyce, who was enroute home from Okinawa, and two of her sisters, Mrs. Mary McCormick of Culbertson, Montana, and Mrs. Charlotte Wald of Minneapolis, all of whom she enjoyed visits with until twenty-four hurs before she passed away, at which time she settled into a deep sleep, from which she never recovered.

Little need be said of her merits as she exemplified everything commendable to womanhood and a mother. She lived and practiced the teachings of the Christian faith daily and taught them in her home. She had no fear of passing away, even though she never mention it, but kept planning daily for her recovery from an illness from which there were no hopes of recovery. Her faith in the hereafter was long established. Every day, as regularly as her eating habits, she would devote many pleasant leisure moments to the comfort she gained from reading her Bible.

A notable characteristic which did much to gain her such a wide circle of friends was her ability to help and share all of them in their needs as individuals and harbor their desires within herself. As a wife and mother she worked hard and continuously from the time of conception until her last minutes with them for their welfare.

Maude Elizbeth Barager, nee Maude Raymond, was born at Black River Falls, Wisconsin on June 22, 1890. Saturday, June 22, when relatives and friends pay their final respect to her she would have observed her 56th birthday. Sunday, June 16, marked hers and her husband's 31st wedding anniversary.

As a girl of four years of age she moved to Withee, residing in that village for 20 years.

On June 16, 1915 at Withee, Maude Raymond and Vernon P. Barager were united in marriage. In the fall of 1917 the family moved to Owen where Mr. Barager had been in business as publisher of the Owen Enterprise since 1914.

Both were actively engaged in community affairs. During the recent war years Mrs. Barager assisted her husband in the newspaper business. She was a member of ST. Katherine's Episcopal Church and had served as a Guild officer, member of the Altar Guild, recently being made an honorary member, Choir Mother, and a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, and of the Royal Neighbors and Rebekahs' at Withee.

Surviving her are her husband, four children; two sons, James Raymond of Owen, and John Lowell of Milwaukee, two daughters, Mrs. Charles (Alberta) Wood, of Eau Claire, and 1st Lt. Joyce, of the U. S. Army Air Evacuation Corps, now stationed on Okinawa; step-mother, Mrs. Bertha Luber of Withee; three sisters, Mary McCormick, Culbertson;, Mont., Charlotte Wald, Minneapolis, Minn., and Catherine Dahl of Seattle, Wash.; and one brother, Harry P. Raymond,of Charlotte N. C.

Saturday afternoon at 2 p. m. from St. Katherin's Church, Owen, funeral services will be conducted. Dr. K. O. Crosby, of St. Katherine's parish will read the ceremony. The Order of the Eastern Star will conduct the service ceremony. Internment will be made in the Riverside cemetery. Mrs. Barager will lie in state at the Griebenow Funeral Home from Friday morning until Saturday noon.

Pallbearers at the service will be Judge O. W. Schoengarth and Walter Beilfuss, Neillsville, Arthur Jensen, Eau Claire, and V. F. Shereda, L. W. Cattanach and H. L. Randall, Owen. Honorary pallbearers of the Eastern Star are Clara Christensen and Anna Kuehl, Withee, Nina Cattanach, Arma Shereda, Louis Halverson and Lottie Gabriel. Flower girls are members of St. Katherines' Altar Guild, LeVonne Nason, Edna Cattanach, Elizabeth King, Avis Anderson, Gladys Weaver, and Viola Torasson, Tena Bruchert and George Richardson, members of St. Katherine's Guild.