Feb. 10, 1930 - Oct. 4, 2006
GREELEY, Colo. -- Jewell Clifford "Jay" Rakke, 76, of Greeley, Colo., formerly of Granite Falls, died Wednesday at his home.
The service will be at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 14 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Greeley, Colo. Burial will be at Linn Grove Cemetery in Greeley.
Arrangements are with Allnutt Funeral Home in Greeley. Memorials are preferred to the Jay Bakke Memorial Fund.
He was born Feb. 10, 1930, in Belview to Arnold and Josie (Oie) Rakke. He attended Granite Falls High School. His quartet, the Quarternotes, competed on the Cedric Adams radio amateur program in 1946. He contracted tuberculosis his senior year of high school and was at Riverside Sanitorium for three years. He graduated from Granite Falls High School in 1948. He attended State School of Science in Wahpeton, N.D., where he studied printing and was linotype operator at several newspapers in Minnesota.
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He married Mary Hamnes in 1953. In 1960 he attended Concordia College in Moorhead. He graduated in 1964. They moved to Arvada, Colo., and he taught in Jefferson County elementary schools. He retired in 1987 and they moved to Greeley, Colo. He drove the bookmobile for Weld Library District for 4½ years and was a volunteer in the print shop at Greeley's Museum Centennial Village.
He was a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church, sang in the choir, and directed the choir for two years.
He is survived by his wife; children: Carla (and Jerry) McWilliams, Cathryn (and Rick) Thelen, all of Littleton, Colo., James (and Nina) Rakke of Aurora, Colo.; eight grandchildren; and two siblings: Ellwin (and Nancy) Rakke of Bemidji, and Lois (and Harlan) Henke of Granite Falls.
He was preceded in death by one son, Jon, and one sister.
