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Gary Robert Bemiss passed away Tuesday, April 22, 2025 early in the morning at Gundersen Hospital in LaCrosse, Wisconsin after a lengthy illness. \u00a0Gary was born on<\/p>\n
February 24, 1945 to Robert and Frances (Halverson) Bemiss in West Union, Iowa.\u00a0 Gary was baptized at the Bethel Presbyterian Church and confirmed there.\u00a0 Gary graduated<\/p>\n
from North High school in 1963 where he was a standout athlete.\u00a0 He went on to attend college at Wayne State where he majored in physical education and played football.<\/p>\n
Gary was united in marriage with Catherine Bemiss on August 13,1966 at Zion Lutheran Church, West Union.\u00a0 Four children were born to this Union, Kevin, Christine, Kelli and Gary Michael.\u00a0 Gary came back from Wayne State after the death of his parents and ran an Anheuser-Busch Wholesalership with his brother Paul until it was sold in June of 2020.\u00a0 Their business started off on Linden Street with a warehouse behind Gary\u2019s home, they then built a warehouse on Armour Street.\u00a0 The business kept growing and in November of 2000 Bemiss Distributing moved out to the Industrial Park where it currently is under the new ownership.\u00a0 In 1992 dad became a volunteer coach for the North Fayette Hawks and then the North Fayette Valley Tigerhawks.\u00a0 It was his greatest love.\u00a0 Those student athletes and the coaching staff meant so much to him.\u00a0 He not only coached them, he cared about them.\u00a0 He also was one of the spearheads of the Knob Prairie Golf Tournament that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the youth of our community.\u00a0 If you look around the town you will see so many projects for the kids.\u00a0 Those projects are all being utilized today.\u00a0 Gary loved golfing, his family, his friends and coaching those young men., and his community. \u00a0He leaves behind an amazing legacy.<\/p>\n
Gary is survived by his four children, Kevin (Caroline) Bemiss, Christine, (Rick Thompson), Kelli (Dave) Lau and Gary Michael (Tara) Bemiss.\u00a0 Gary is also survived by his ten grandchildren, Kedrick (Ciara) Bemiss, Jenna (Collin) Kane, Brittany (Greg) Bemiss Thompson, Brianna (Miles) Meyers, Brooke (Jared) Kerr, Derik Lau, Allison Lau, Lukas Lau, Braeden Bemiss and Blake Bemiss.\u00a0 He had one great grandchild, Brooks Beaumont.\u00a0 He is also survived by his sister Linda Schwarting and many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.<\/p>\n
Gary was proceeded in death by his parents Robert and Frances Halverson Bemiss, his wife, Catherine Irene Renwick Bemiss, and his brother Paul Bemiss.<\/p>\n
A Visitation will be held from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm on Thursday, May 1, 2025 at the West Union Event Center in West Union, Iowa. There will also be a one-hour visitation before services at the church on Friday.<\/p>\n
Funeral Service will be at 10:30 am on Friday May 2, 2025 at Bethel Presbyterian Church in West Union with Pastor Lori Kleppe as the officiant.<\/p>\n
Inurnment will follow at the West Union City Cemetery in West Union, Iowa.<\/p>\n
Burnham-Wood-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service of West Union, Iowa is assisting the family with services.<\/p>\n
Please wear your Tigerhawk Gear.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gary Robert Bemiss passed away Tuesday, April 22, 2025 early in the morning at Gundersen Hospital in LaCrosse, Wisconsin after a lengthy illness. \u00a0Gary was born on February 24, 1945 to Robert and Frances (Halverson) Bemiss in West Union, Iowa.\u00a0 Gary was baptized at the Bethel Presbyterian Church and confirmed there.\u00a0 Gary graduated from North […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[931],"class_list":["post-17799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-bemiss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17799","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=17799"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17812,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17799\/revisions\/17812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}