{"id":4007,"date":"2017-11-08T10:20:44","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T16:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/?p=4007"},"modified":"2017-11-13T15:32:11","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T21:32:11","slug":"raymond-clifford-cousins-formerly-of-elkader-iowa-november-8-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/2017\/11\/raymond-clifford-cousins-formerly-of-elkader-iowa-november-8-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Raymond Clifford Cousins, formerly of Elkader, Iowa, November 8, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-small_image wp-image-4024 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Cousins-Raymond-250x333.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Cousins-Raymond-250x333.jpg 250w, https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Cousins-Raymond-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Cousins-Raymond-68x91.jpg 68w, https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Cousins-Raymond.jpg 372w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Raymond Clifford Cousins Jr<\/strong>., 84, died Wednesday, November 8, 2017 at the V.A. Central Iowa Health Care System, Des Moines Iowa. Ray was born in Elkader, IA to Raymond Sr. and Edith Cousins.\u00a0 He graduated from Elkader High School.\u00a0 After high school, he served in the Air Force from August 1953-July 1957, where he was stationed in Germany working in electronic communications maintenance.<\/p>\n<p>Ray was united in marriage to Sharon Kay Kramer on November 2, 1958. They had three children, Stanley, Urbandale, IA; Sherri (Johnson), Cedar Rapids, IA; and Jeffrey, San Antonio, TX.<\/p>\n<p>Early in their marriage, they lived in Cedar Rapids, where Ray worked for Sears &amp; Roebuck in various departments including sewing machine repair.\u00a0 In 1972, they moved back to Elkader after purchasing a farm near LaNelle and Arthur Elvers (Sharon\u2019s parents). During that time, both Sharon and Ray worked for the Clayton County Sheriff\u2019s Department as dispatchers. He started his own business in 1976 doing sewing machine repair in the Bries Mini Mall.<\/p>\n<p>After selling the farm, they moved to Mt Vernon until Sharon\u2019s death in 1993. Ray moved to Greene, IA, then to Des Moines, IA and lived in the Senior Housing, Plymouth Place.\u00a0 In 2009, a stroke forced Ray into assisted care. Ending with 5 years of living at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown, IA.<\/p>\n<p>Ray\u2019s love for electronics kept him busy throughout his life in Ham Radio, CB Radio, and Computers.<\/p>\n<p>He is survived by: Children: Stan, Jeff &amp; Sherri; Grandchildren: Justin Cousins, Matt Cousins, Danielle (River) Bennett, Stephanie Johnson, Austin McElroy, and Abby McElroy; Great Grandchildren: Connor, Faith and Everett Bennett<\/p>\n<p>Ray is preceded in death by: Wife &#8211; Sharon on 10-14-93, Sisters- Janice (Roy) Baker, Dorothy Iliff and Parents &#8211; Raymond Sr. and Edith.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Family and Friends are invited to visitation\/lunch at Elkader Bowling Alley Wednesday, November 15, 2017 at 11:30 AM.\u00a0 Graveside Service with Military Honors will be held at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, November 15, 2017 at East Side Cemetery, Elkader, Iowa.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Leonard-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service, Elkader, Iowa is helping the family with arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Raymond Clifford Cousins Jr., 84, died Wednesday, November 8, 2017 at the V.A. Central Iowa Health Care System, Des Moines Iowa. Ray was born in Elkader, IA to Raymond Sr. and Edith Cousins.\u00a0 He graduated from Elkader High School.\u00a0 After high school, he served in the Air Force from August 1953-July 1957, where he was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[328],"class_list":["post-4007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-cousins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4007","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=4007"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4025,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4007\/revisions\/4025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}