Thursday, 28 March 2024

Clinton 'Dusty' Rhoades, 1923-2011

 


 

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Clinton Rhoades, 87, died on Saturday, September 17, 2011.

 

 

Clinton Edward “Dusty” Rhoades began his final retirement on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011.


Born Dec. 31, 1923 in Muncie, Indiana, he served in the Army during World War II from 1943 to 1945 in France. He was attached to support services, assembling and maintaining vehicles, from jeeps to

trucks to tanks.


After the war, he married Hueberta May Rinker of Anderson, Indiana in 1947. They moved briefly to Texas, then to Long Beach, California in 1948.


In 1950 Dusty was recalled, and served during the Korean War, stationed primarily in Japan.


In 1952 back in California, they moved to Compton, where he continued automotive work as a mechanic. His son Douglas Rhoades was born in 1953.


In 1961 he decided, after visiting Lake County with friends and relatives on several occasions, that he wanted to move north. The following year the family relocated to Nice, where he would remain for the next 43 years.


He opened his own automotive repair and service station business in Upper Lake, the R & R Garage (the second “R” represented his early business partner Lloyd Redfield).


He was also a bus driver for many years for the Upper Lake Union School and High School Districts, and many former students of those schools remember him fondly.


He continued his automotive business until his first retirement in 1989. In 1997, he and his wife celebrated 50 years of marriage.


Hueberta died in 2000 after a protracted illness, during which Dusty remained by her side for many months with the assistance of Hospice Services of Lake County.


Not one to stay at rest for long, Dusty went back to work, providing vehicle transportation for Airport Auto in Lakeport. There he met Ethel Evans, who provided financial services to that business. Her first husband Gil had died in a plane accident in 1987.


In 2005, he married Ethel and moved to Kelseyville where he remained until his rapid decline and death, after being diagnosed with leukemia just one month earlier.


Dusty was very involved in the community. He was a volunteer fireman for the Nice Fire Department, served on the board of the Nice Water Co., where he frequently helped with installation and repair of services for that utility.


He entered the Masonic Lodge in 1961 in Compton, and was a member and Past Master of Hartley Lodge No. 199 F&AM in Lakeport.


Dusty’s family came to America before there was something called the “United States.” He could trace his genealogy through his mother’s Dutch ancestors to arrival in the “New World” in New Amsterdam, now New York, in 1640.


He is preceded in death by his mother, Ellabell Winans Case; father, Gordon Rhoades, of Indiana; and his first wife, Hueberta May Rinker Rhoades of Nice, Calif.


He is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Doug and Nancy Rhoades of Kelseyville; grandchildren, Jeremiah French and Sarah Joy Dutra (Joe); and his four great-grandchildren, Adriana, Taran, Ian and

Austin.


He is also survived by his sister, Adeline Monroe of Muncie, Indiana; and his four nieces, Rita, Renee, Julie and Brenda.


A Masonic graveside service will be held at Kelseyville Cemetery on Friday, Sept. 23, 2011, at 11 a.m. with participation by the Lake County Military Honors Team.


In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice Services of Lake County or the Masonic Homes Foundation.

 

 

 

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