Arthur Yager

Arthur W. Yager, passed away on September 14, 2015, at the Missouri Veterans Home in Mt. Vernon, MO. at 4:06 p.m. He was born on January 9, 1924 in Springfield, MO, to August Hummel Yager and Ruth Pearson Yager. He grew up in Springfield, Willard and the surrounding area. He attended and graduated from Willard High School in 1941 and enlisted in the Army in 1943 and was injured in battle in Germany for which he received a Purple Heart. After he was honorably discharged in 1946 from the Army, he came home and began courting Kathryn Mae Crank, whom he later married and they celebrated 52 years together before she died of cancer on September 15, 1999. He graduated from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy in Rolla, MO in 1950 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and began working for IBM shortly after that. While he was with IBM, he traveled to many places around the US, including Chicago and San Jose, for training. He retired from IBM in 1982 and began his own computer store, Bitek Computers which he ran for ten years. His children remember his passion for bowling, his love for his cows, fishing in Canada and on Table Rock Lake, deer hunting, making apple pies, Missouri baseball teams, gardening, and square dancing. He cared about people, especially friends and family and would often cut wood, do wiring, remodel and help build their new houses.

As a child, one of his favorite pastimes was spending time with his father at Doling Park and helping him with the rides and selling hot dogs and hamburgers. The jingle that his dad used to promote his business was, "They're already ready, they're already hot, a pickle in the middle and a bun on top."

He had been a member of Southminster Presbyterian Church, the Elks Club, a Square Dancing Club, an Investment Club and the NRA.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, brothers Paul, Lawrence and John Yager, sisters Frances Grevillius, Helen Montgomery and Doris (Lambeth) Emerson.

He is survived by four children, Pat Gregory and her partner, Karen Watson of Springfield, MO, Susan Rosenbaum and husband, Randy of Shell Knob, MO, Mike Yager and wife, Bonita of Rogersville, MO, and Carla Yager and husband, Anthony LeCara, Jr. of Houston, TX, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

Memorial services will be Friday, September 25, 2015 at 11:30 a.m. at Southminster Presbyterian Church.

Visitation will be Thursday, September 24, 2015 from 6 to 8:00 p.m. at Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home.

Memorial contributions may be made to Alzheimer's Association, 1630 W. Elfindale, Springfield, MO 65807.