![\"\"](\"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Earl-Ernest-McNeal-248x300.jpeg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\nEarl Ernest McNeal of Elkader, Iowa, passed away after a short illness on August 31, 2024, at 96 years of age.\u00a0 He was born near Bear Creek, Elk Township, Clayton County, Iowa on August 16, 1928.<\/p>\n
In his youth he was active in 4-H and a member of the Clayton County judging team @ the Waterloo Cattle Congress.\u00a0 He graduated from Elkport High School in 1946, and left Clayton County to seek his fortune in Cedar Rapids working for Wilson\u2019s Packing.\u00a0 But, he returned to the Neala Holstein Farm to help his folks.<\/p>\n
In 1948, he married Irene Fisher and to this union four children were born.\u00a0 Eric (Verna Bachman-White) McNeal, Cinda (Jack) Crosley of Pflugerville, TX; Dennis (Kathy-deceased) McNeal of Guttenberg; and Daniel (Kate) of Cedar Rapids. Ernie & Irene worked hard on the farm, eventually relocating to Strawberry Point, IA, where they owned and operated the Strawberry Motel on Highway 3. During his life he worked for Moyna Construction of Elkader as a heavy equipment operator.<\/p>\n
In 1988, he married his \u201csoulmate\u201d Geraldean Harnack Kuehl and together they owned and operated McNeal Auto Sales for 18 yrs.\u00a0 It was the longest running used car dealership in Elkader, a source of pride for him. Later he became more active raising beef cattle on the family farm.\u00a0 He loved his family, cars-whether buying, selling, racing, or repairing, raising cattle and the family farm.<\/p>\n
Ernie is survived by three of his four children, his step-son Dave Kuehl, 10 grandchildren,\u00a013 great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n
He was preceded in death by his parents Earl & Olga, his two sisters, Dorothy Rizer of Edgewood and Eileen Kuehl of Strawberry Point,\u00a0his wife Geraldean McNeal, His oldest son Eric McNeal and his daughter-in-law Kathy McNeal.<\/p>\n
He lived a long, fulfilled life working hard to maintain his independence until the end.\u00a0 Blessings and cheers to a life well lived.<\/p>\n
Visitation<\/strong> will be held from 10 to 11 AM on Saturday, September 7, 2024, at Peace United Church of Christ in Elkader<\/p>\n Service<\/strong> will follow at 11:00 AM with Pastor Paula Anderson officiating<\/p>\n Interment<\/strong>: Hansel Cemetery, Garber, Iowa<\/p>\n Leonard-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service of Elkader is assisting the family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Earl Ernest McNeal of Elkader, Iowa, passed away after a short illness on August 31, 2024, at 96 years of age.\u00a0 He was born near Bear Creek, Elk Township, Clayton County, Iowa on August 16, 1928. In his youth he was active in 4-H and a member of the Clayton County judging team @ the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1210],"class_list":["post-16762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-mcneal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16762"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16802,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16762\/revisions\/16802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}