Delbert Rhodes
July 15, 1917 - Nov. 11, 2006
RENVILLE -- Delbert Rhodes, 89, of Renville died Saturday.
The service will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at First Lutheran Church in Renville. Burial, with military rites, is in Fairview Cemetery at Renville.
Visitation is one hour prior to the service at the church. Arrangements are with Dirks-Blem Funeral Service in Renville.
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He was born July 15, 1917, in Dows, Iowa, to Fred and Augusta (Wiehmeyer) Rhodes. He graduated from West Concord High School and attended Augsburg College where he majored in chemistry and minored in mathematics and physics. He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1942. He served as a pilot and flew many hours in a PB-4-Y Liberator and B-24. He was stationed in Guadalcanal during World War II.
He married Arline Nelson on Sept. 26, 1943. They lived in Long Beach, Calif., for a short while, followed by a move to Phoenix while he served in the Navy. When they returned to Minnesota, he became a teacher at the Cottonwood school for one year. They moved to Renville in 1946. He was a teacher at the Renville High School for two years. In 1948, he became an electrician and started Community Electric in 1949. He retired in 1989.
He is survived by children: Karen Rhodes (and Gene Wellman), Jody (and Art) Driggs, Steve (and Amy) Rhodes; 10 grandchildren; siblings: Les Rhodes, Bob Rhodes, Mary Gillard, Charlotte (and Bud) Hughes, Carole Walker, Linda (and Marshall) Beckett, Joanne (and Delmar) Paulson.
He was preceded in death by his wife and two sisters.
