This is a 2006 post from another blog – but one I wanted to make certain was included here.
William Vance. Age: about 20. Era: WWII. Job: tail gunner.
My father-in-law, William A. Vance Jr. will have a Masonic Funeral Service tomorrow morning. Reading this paragraph from his obituary in The Daily Gate City, you can see why it is fitting:
He was a 50-year member of Denver Lodge 464, Denver, Ill., Gate City Chapter 7, Royal Arch Masons, Damancers Commandery 5 Knights Templain, Apolla Council of Keokuk, Valley of Quincy Consistory, KAABA Shrine of Davenport, Order of Eastern Star and served as district deputy grand master of the Seventh Western District of the State of Illinois in 1982 and 1983. He was awarded the York Rite Cross of Honor in 1953. He also was a member of the Past Masters and Past Commanders of the York Rite, State of Iowa. Recently, he received an award for 50 years of loyal service from the Quincy Consistory. He served as captain of the Keokuk Chief Patrol for the Keokuk Shriners. He received the E.L. Lawrence Award for an Outstanding Mason in 2000.
Masonic funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in Lamporte Funeral Home, Carthage, with the Denver Masonic Lodge officiating.
Following is the conclusion of the service cited above:
There is no death. What seems so is transition. All that is beautiful and good and true in human life is no more affected by the shadow of death than by the darkness that divides today from tomorrow.
Our paths lead not to the grave but through it. Immortal we are and ever shall be. We look not to another life, but to the perfecting of this one. In God’s good time we shall be raised by His right hand to that higher, fairer phase of life for which this is only the preparation.
Friendship is refreshment and sweetness as we pass this way. It is much to feel that, wherever we are, we have friends, and that their friends are ours as well. Our Brother’s friends are lonely in this hour, but the friendship we felt for him extends to them. We, too, loved him.
We, too, feel the pain of parting. Our sympathy, our love, are theirs as they were his. Our entire fraternity surrounds his loved ones with the assurance of its affection. We offer the support of our sympathy, the comfort of our faith, the inspiration of our hope, that they, with us, may look beyond this hour through the opening portals of the infinite. So then, let us be unceasingly grateful for every God-given virtue which the life of our Brother expressed, and let us be comforted and sustained by the assurance that life goes on unbroken and uncorrupted and that God alone is the life and light of men.
AND HERE IS A RELATED POST: A REMEMBRANCE OF WILLIAM VANCE by Wayne Botkins.
As I have written, my father-in-law, William A. Vance, passed away last Tuesday and was laid to rest following a Masonic Funeral at Harmony Cemetery on Saturday. What follows is an emailed memory of him from his high school days:
This by cousin Wayne Botkin:
My best recollection of Bill Vance was in 1941;we we were at
Carthage High;Bill was a sophomore and I, a senior & on the
varsity football–Bill played guard and I, tackle. Bill
being two years younger and smaller played only parttime.
When Bill was in the game he played long side of me. When
a running play was over our side, I would say “Come on Bill.”
We opened holes many times for the running back to make a
good gain. Oftentimes when we were unscrambling from a
pile-up, Bill’s helmut (being too large) would be half
turned on his head and I could only see a big smile on his
face. Yes, Bill was “tough and scrappy” which he had to use
too many times during his life.
Yes, I am proud to have been his cousin. May his soul rest in
peace.