Seymour Daily Tribune
May 20, 2002
William Scott Gillespie
William Scott Gillespie, 95, North Vernon, died at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 18, 2002, at Columbus Regional Hospital, Columbus.
Mr. Gillespie worked for the Bureau of Reclamation, building hydroelectric dams in Wyoming. He attended schools in Harrisonville, Mo., and was with the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1940 to 1944. He then worked for Ford Motor Co. and Kaiser-Frazer until he started his own business. He owned automobile dealerships in Kansas and Oklahoma and retail businesses in California and Kansas, retiring in Pittsburg, Kan., in 1968. He moved to Indiana in 1972 where he restored antiques in Madison and Bicknell. He moved to North Vernon in 1987 and was an avid gardener and woodworker.
While in Casper, Wyo., he was a 50-year member of the Royal Arch Masons, a past master of Natrona Lodge 51, a member of the Apollo Cammandery 8 of the Knights Templar of Wyoming, a York Rite Mason, an associate guardian of Jobs Daughters Bethel 41, and a member of Korein Temple Shrine Club where he participated in their oriental band. In 1968 he moved his membership to Mirza Temple Shrine Club in Pittsburg, Kan. He was also a charter member of the Children’s Shrine Burn Center, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Born Nov. 21, 1906, in Drexel, Mo., he was a son of Alexander W. Gillespie and Anna Laura Carpenter. On July 5, 1929, in Gehring, Neb., he married Violette N. Wilms and she survives.
He also is survived by a daughter, Marilyn (Jim) Morin, North Vernon; four grandchildren, Scott Melvin, Chesapeake, Va., Darolyn “Lyn” Jones, Zionsville, Jamie Morin, North Vernon, and Bobbi Ebbing, Columbus; and a nephew, Robert A. Gillespie, Kansas City, Mo.
He was preceded by a brother, Aaron Gillespie; and a sister, Nell Banner.
The Rev. Lance Marshall will conduct funeral services at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Dove-Sharp and Rudicel Funeral Home, North Vernon. Burial will be at Vernon Cemetery, Vernon.
Friends may call from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. A Masonic service will be conducted at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home by North Vernon Masonic Lodge Post 59.
Memorials may be given to the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital, through the funeral home.