Eugene A. Ward

Eugene Ward, 79, of Garner, died Tuesday, March 13, 2018 at the Muse Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit in Mason City.

Memorial services will be held at 10:30 A.M., Monday, March 19, 2018 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Garner with the Rev. Scott Kozisek officiating.

Visitation will be held form 4:00 - 7:00 P.M. Sunday, March 18th at the Cataldo Funeral Chapel in Garner, Iowa.

Burial of cremains will be held in Concord Cemetery in Garner.

Eugene Arthur Ward, was born May 7, 1938 on a farm in Kossuth County. His parents were Arthur and Rose (Drabek) Ward. He attended school in Whittemore and in 1955 graduated from high school in Britt. Gene was married to Gloria Rabe and later divorced. To this union two children were born: Bryan and Dawn. Later, Gene married JoDee Wedmore Graham in Las Vegas. With her three children, Denny, Matt and Cory Graham, they had a family of five children.

Gene was well known as an 'International Harvester Equipment' mechanic in the North Iowa area. He was employed by Corwith Implement of Corwith and Urich Implement of Garner. Gene also worked for Deibler Excavating. His 'Dream' job was driving semi-trucks. He especially enjoyed being an OTR driver for Schmidt Trucking & Dornbier Trucking of Garner. JoDee felt fortunate to be a co-driver with Gene.

His hobbies included: gardening, bee-keeping and woodworking.

Gene is survived by his wife, JoDee Ward of Garner; his son, Bryan (Leslea) Ward of Des Moines, his daughter, Dawn Ward and her fiance Mark Fister of Britt; step children, Denny (Beverly) Graham of Fort Worth, Texas, Matt (Mary) Graham of Garner and Cory (Danielle) Graham of Garner; three grandchildren; eight step grandchildren and four great grandchildren; siblings, Red (Donna Banta) Ward of Garner, Doug (Lois) Ward of Cedar Rapids and Betty Bistline of Plymouth.

Preceding Gene in death were his parents and brothers, Charles Ward, Roger and his wife, Lois Ward, Dick and his wife, Doneen Ward and a brother-in-law, John Bistline.