Earl L. Bell

Earl L. Bell, 93, of Sun­bury died Tues­day morn­ing (June 5, 2012) at the home of his son.

He was born on Dec. 2, 1918, in Delaware County to the late Fred W. and Nel­lie (Ash­brook) Bell. A 1938 grad­u­ate of Willis High School, he also attended The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity dur­ing the Depres­sion. He worked at Cur­tis Wright in Colum­bus as a tool and die maker where they made dive bombers before join­ing the Navy in 1944. After World War II he worked for Gen­eral Motors as a tool and die maker in Colum­bus before help­ing his wife start Sun­bury Clean­ers in 1948 and later John­stown Clean­ers in 1951 which they ran for 32 years. He opened his first laun­dro­mat in 1954 before they had coin oper­ated washers.

Earl was a mem­ber of the Sun­bury Chris­t­ian Church, Amer­i­can Legion, a more than 50 year mem­ber of the Masonic Lodge, a for­mer Lion and started the John­stown Busi­ness Asso­ci­a­tion. Earl enjoyed boat­ing, travel and he espe­cially enjoyed his horses, includ­ing a world record holder and a par­tic­i­pant in the Lit­tle Brown Jug, which fol­lowed a fam­ily tra­di­tion of rac­ing going back to his grandfather.

He is sur­vived by son, Den­nis Bell of Sun­bury; sis­ter, Ellen (Bell) Vaughn of West­er­ville; grand­daugh­ter, Amy Bricker of Fort Laud­erdale, Fla.; and cousins, nieces and nephews.

He was pre­ceded in death by his wife of 61 years, Dorothy R. (Kin­nell ) Bell — they were mar­ried Nov. 28, 1942 and she died April 3, 2003; sis­ter, Hari­ett Milla; broth­ers, Harold, Wymond, Fred, the Rev. Woodrow, Edward and Ker­mit; and daughter-in-law: Grace (Tay­lor) Bell.

Friends may call from 4 to 7 p.m. Fri­day at the DeVore-Snyder Funeral Home, Ohio 3 at 61, Sun­bury where ser­vices will be at 11 a.m. Sat­ur­day with the Rev. Mike Brat­ten offi­ci­at­ing. Inter­ment will fol­low in the Sun­bury Memo­r­ial Park.

Memo­r­ial con­tri­bu­tions can be made to the Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety, 5555 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH 43017.

Con­do­lences may be expressed at snyderfuneralhomes.com.

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Jun 6 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.