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Submitted: 5/5/24 • Approved: 5/5/24 • Last Updated: 5/8/24 • R1531411-G1278446-S3
Valree
February 25, 1927 - March 13, 2012
John
March 2, 1923 - April 30, 2024
Married: December 26, 1944
*obituary
John Baldwin Kraft, 101, died April 30, 2024. He was born March 2, 1923, in Stanwood, WA to John and Dovie Kraft. John was a retired veteran of World War II, having served in the United States Air Force for over 20 years. He was a tail gunner on a B24 bomber and was a recipient of the Purple Heart. After his retirement from the Air Force, he served as Water Utility Manager for Chidester, AR for more than 50 years.
Mr. Kraft was a true renaissance man. He dabbled in all sorts of hobbies from genealogy, beekeeping and producing honey, raising peacocks and chickens, brewing beer, gardening, rock collecting and polishing, bird watching, tree planting, photography, repairing electronics such as televisions and radios, amateur boxing, building a wooden boat powered by an airplane engine for rides with his children down Boggy Bayou and out onto Choctawhatchee Bay or building a treehouse for his grandchildren to play in, enjoying a fine hamburger at a local café, to road trips around Arkansas and beyond, including one to New Orleans and the WWII Museum several years ago where he was thanked for his service by strangers at nearly every turn.
He was adventurous and liked to take day trips to hunt diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro or enjoy the festivities at the Camden Daffodil Festival but was also just as comfortable and content at home watching an evening baseball game on television.
He loved reading his daily newspaper and the funnies section, especially Beetle Bailey. He really loved taking long car rides out in the country, on back roads around Chidester and down by the Little Missouri and Ouachita Rivers, deep amongst the pine trees, with the windows down, listening to old country music with his family.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife, Valree Kraft; two brothers, Eugene Kraft and James Kraft; two sisters, Blanche Hooper and JoAnn Land; a half sister, Evelyn June Woods; and a half brother, Donald Ray Bryant.
Mr. Kraft is survived by two sons, John L. Kraft and Cecil C. Kraft and his wife, Sandy; a daughter, Candice Weedman; seven grandchildren, Jonathan Weedman (Morgan), Michael Kraft (Holly), Angie Carlton, Gina Kraft (David Irpino), Brenda Spradling, Linda “Gerber” Underhill and Rhonda Spradling; seven great grandchildren, Meaghan Shea Carlton, Patrick Joseph Carlton, Brady Thomas Carlton, Carrigan Rose Carlton, Reagan Kraft, John Carter Kraft and Walter Dean Weedman as well as several nieces and nephews and a sister-in-law, Judy Sweatman.
The family wishes to extend a special thanks to his niece Pam Clay and Phillip Hooker for the loving care and attention they gave to John.
Visitation/viewing will be Sunday, May 05, 2024, from 12:30pm to 1:30pm at Proctor Funeral Home. A graveside service will be held Sunday at 2:00PM at Missouri Cemetery, Ouachita County Road 75, Chidester, AR 71726
Contributed on 5/5/24 by debbraszymanski
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Record #: 1531411