Ray F. McConnaha, 82, died March 3, 1988 at Memorial Community Hospital in Blair.

Funeral services were held March 7, 1988, at the United Methodist Church in Tekamah, with Rev. Marion Knoell officiating.

Masonic rites were also held at the church by the Herman Masonic Lodge.

Burial was in the Tekamah cemetery.

Mr. McConnaha was born March 17, 1905, to Robert E. and Nancy E. (Loftis) McConnaha at Boydsville, Missouri.

His family moved to a farm outside Herman in 1922 and Ray graduated from Tekamah High School in 1925.

Following high school, he returned to Missouri, and on June 8, 1929 he was married to Myrtle Irene Staples in St. Louis.

Ray initially worked as a streetcar conductor in St. Louis.

He also ran a trading post on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and also farmed at various locations in the Washington County area.

In 1950, he was appointed town marshal of Herman. IN 1953, he became a policeman in Tekamah, where he worked until his retirement in 1968.

He served as Chief of Police from 1954 to 1968.

Ray and his wife Myrtle lived in Edgemont, Arkansas, from 1969 to 1978.

They returned to Nebraska in 1978 where he resided until his death.

Ray was a member of the Tekamah United Methodist Church and the Herman Masonic Lodge.

Mr. McConnaha was preceded in death by his daughter Betty, parents, sister, Elizabeth and brothers, Mark, Robert, Richard, and Wendell.

He is survived by his wife Myrtle, daughter Frances Vernon of Honolulu, Hawaii, son Wendell of Chicago, Illinois, sister, Margaret Ball, Blair, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be directed to the McConnaha Memorial Scholarship Fund at the Burt County Bank in Tekamah.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~