KELLY DEFUR

Nov 21 1955

Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday afternoon for Kelly DeFur, 80, Mt. Vernon, former Wadesville and Mt. Vernon merchant, an ex-public official with successful administrations of Posey county offices of circuit clerk and commissioner to his credit and a powerful figure in Posey county Democrat politics for years.

Mr. Defur died late Saturday (19 Nov 1955) afternoon in an Evansville hospital.  Death resulted from complications that followed a fall and fracture of his hip in recent weeks while hospitalized.

Elder Leo Dodd, Eldorado, Ill. of Primitive Baptist Church, will conduct the funeral service at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Weisinger Funeral Home chapel.  Burial will be in Laurel Hill cemetery at Wadesville.  Friends are invited to call at the funeral home after 5 p.m. today.

Surviving are the wife, nee Emma Schlosser, Mt. Vernon, whose marriage to Mr. DeFur took place in 1898; a son, Clyde DeFur, Evansville formerly associated with his father in De Fur & Sons, a Mt. Vernon paint and wallpaper  firm; a grandson Ronald DeFur, Indianapolis; two great-grandchildren, and a brother, Omar DeFur, manager of Rhoades Hardware  & Implement Co., Wadesville.

The deceased was a member of Beulah lodge, No. 578, Free & Accepted Masons, and Mt. Vernon lodge, No. 277, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.

The ex-business leader and former public official, who during the prime of his life possessed one of the widest acquaintanceships of any Posey county resident, was a native of Center township, a son of Theophilus DeFur and Eliza Wade DeFur, member of pioneer Posey county families.

Following his graduation from Center township schools, he was employed by Thomas D. Shelton, Wadesville grain buyer, and then was a clerk in the general store of James Cross at Wadesville.

His first business venture was as a partner of Walter Williams in the DeFur & Williams hardware store at Wadesville.  Later he was associated with his brother-in-law, Louis Schlosser, in the general mercantile firm of DeFur & Schlosser at Wadesville.

He became Posey Circuit Court clerk Jan 1, 1913 and established residence in Mt. Vernon.  He served two terms of four years each as circuit clerk and for several years during his tenure was clerk of the Posey county Draft Board of World War I.

Following brief periods as manager of Graham Valve Co., and manager of Farmers Commission Co., livestock buying firm in Evansville, he joined L. L. Hurley in the organization of a Mt. Vernon paint and wallpaper firm.  The two remained partners through several years of expansion that included establishment of a paint and wallpaper store in Henderson, Ky.  The partnership was dissolved by Mr. Hurley becoming owner of the Henderson store and Mr. DeFur becoming owner of the Mt. Vernon business at which time the firm of DeFur & Son was organized.  The tragic death of a son of the late deceased, Dale DeFur in 1948 from a gas explosion in his home in Mt. Vernon, was a blow from which the father never recovered.  The father and a younger son, Clyde DeFur, continued to operate the local paint and wallpaper firm.

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Originally submitted by Betty Sellers