| Viola Rites for John Kness, 87, Former Miner
Funeral services for the late John Kness, Sr., 87, of Viola,
were held from the Crummy Funeral home at 8:30 a.m. Monday and from St.
John's Catholic church in Viola at 9 a.m., with Rev. C. M. Meyer
officiating with Requiem High Mass.
Mr. Kness had been in failing health for several years, and died
in Mercer County hospital Friday, Jan 29, 1954, after a week's illness
from pneumonia.
Burial was in St. John's cemetery, Viola, and pallbearers were P.
C. Kaveny, Martin McVeigh, Bert Mack, George Banick, Frank Bollman, and
E. J. Anderson, Sr.
Mr. Kness was a native of Austria, where he was born March 14,
1866. He was employed in the large Bismark coal mines in Eisen, Germany,
and in 1892, he came to the United States and settled in Wanlock, Mercer
county. He followed the vocation of coal mining and farming until his
retirement some years ago when he purchased property in Viola which has
been his home since.
He was married to Louise Brock at Aledo in August, 1897, and she
died in 1920. He was married again in Aledo in 1936 to Mrs. Alma
Lilliman. He was a member of St. John's Catholic church of Viola.
Surviving are the widow; a daughter Mrs. Mary Lindquist,
Reynolds; six sons, John M., Vincent, and Leo, all of Viola; Louis of
Woodhull; Mathew of Moline; and Martin of Rock Island. The sons Louis
and Leo and Martin and Mathew are twins. Surviving also are six step
children, Mrs. Evelyn Bergeson and Mrs. Mabel Madlinger, Rock Island;
Mrs. Dorothy Gardelka, Peoria; Mrs. Joyce Knox, Aledo, Billy Lilliman,
Viola, and Allen Lilliman of the U.S. Army now home on leave.
(Aledo Times Record, Wednesday, February 3, 1954, Sect. 3, p. 1) |
