Breckinridge County KyArchives Obituaries.....Harned, Virgil W. June 25, 1946
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Dana Brown http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 January 29, 2006, 11:18 pm

Irvington Herald; 7/5/1946
CUSTER POSTMASTER DIES ON EVE OF ANNIVERSARY (paper dated on article is listed 
at Friday, July 5, 1946)

Custer-- 
Tuesday, June 25th dawned over Custer as clear and as bright as a June day 
might.  The earth lay in its quiet summer beauty and there was a promise in 
everything.  The young crops were flourishing and the grain heads were heavy 
with their life giving morsels and there was the fair white of the lilies and 
the clean brilliant hues of the larkspur and snapdragons, God's blue heaven 
high above.  While a beautiful girl was laying the last of her wedding plans 
and the sounds of children's voices prattled all through the day.  Then came 
the eventide and the sounds of a summer day ending.  The cattle coming home and 
the milk pails rattling.

Into this evening calm came shocking tragedy; death, quick and without 
warning.  A man whom Custer had come to love and respect and to rely upon for 
nearly 30 years.  Came to the end of the way as he performed the simple evening 
duties of calling the cows home to milk.  He was Virgil W. Harned, Custer's 
postmaster for many years.  He had walked across the pasture and into a wooded 
ravine to seek a cow late to come home, and it was there where only the quiet 
of the silent trees and the subdued evening songs of the woodland birds, a 
voice came to this man.  The voice of the Master calling "Come Home, you belong 
with me."  And having heard the call, his one desire was to pass away among 
those he loved, so he turned his face homeward and with the last breaths from a 
quick slowing heart he walked toward home, managing only to reach his brother-
in-law and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Hoskinson.  Before his wife could reach 
his bedside he passed on.  A heart condition having finally proved too much.  
He died within a few minutes after having been stricken.  The news spread 
rapidly and Custer wept as it hasn't in a long time for one of it's dearest 
friends had passed.

Among those left to mourn his passing are his wife, Mrs. Nora Harned Hoskinson; 
a son, Russell Harned, of Custer; two daughters, Mrs. Jesse T. Pile and Mrs. 
Harold B. Minter, both of Louisville; three grandchildren, Frances Ann, Wendell 
V. and Joyce Lee Pile; his mother Mrs. Nettie Dyer, of Dyer; one brother, Earl 
Harned, one sister, Mrs. James O. Bennett, both of Custer; two half brothers, 
Thomas E. Dyer, of Custer and James W. Dyer, of Louisville; two half-sisters 
Mrs. Hubert Harned and Mrs. Everett Pile both of Custer; two step-brothers, Lee 
and Sam Dyer, both of California.  Mr. Harned was a loyal member of the Custer 
Methodist church where he had been a member for 36 years.  Serving as Secretary 
and Recording Steward for year.  He was preceded in death by his father, John 
Lee Harned, 52 years ago, also a step-father T. N. Dyer, who passed away two 
years ago, a step-brother, Ernest Dyer and a step-sister, Mrs. Lizzie Chaffee.  
He was in his 58th year and had he lived one day longer they would have 
celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary together.

People came from far and wide to gather in Custer's Methodist church to hear 
the last solemn words of the funeral service and pay their last respects.  Rev. 
Squire Whitaker and Rev. Frank Perkins conducted the service with Mrs. T. S. 
Mitcham at the piano, a trio sang the beautiful old songs, "Asleep In 
Jesus", "The Unclouded Day", "Good Night, Good Morning".  At the Custer 
Cemetery which was formerly his family cemetery, the beautiful Masonic rites 
were said while numbers of his Masonic brothers paid their last tribute.  As 
the summer sun neared the Western horizon, the earth closed once more and 
claimed its own.  When the people had turned away there was only the lovely 
floral offering to bespeak the resting place of one of Custer's best loved 
citizens with an indelible memory in the hearts of all who knew him.  He will 
be greatly missed by his family, church, his community which he had served so 
faithfully, also the Masonic and Modern Woodman Lodges of which he belonged.





Additional Comments:
This is one of several obituaries my g-grandmother cut out and pasted in a 
scrapbook.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/breckinridge/obits/h/harned3263gob.txt

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