Private Interment:

Bado Cemetery

Memorials:

Memorial donations may be made to the Bado Cemetery Fund; Bado Community Church, 5800 Hwy M, Cabool, MO 65689.

Obituary:

Raymond Eugene Flowers, aged 90 years and 10 months, was born June 17, 1929 of the marriage between Ray and Erma (Thomas) Flowers, at the family home, Bado, Missouri. Raymond died the morning of April 25, 2020, while residing at the Kabul Nursing Home, Cabool, Missouri.

Raymond attended Houston High School, graduating with the Class of 1946.  Raymond loved his high school sweetheart and after her high school graduation in May, he married Clara Belle Ragain, of the Upton community, on June 14, 1947.  In search of their dreams and earnings from reliable work, Raymond and Clara moved to Waterloo, Iowa soon after their marriage.  Raymond was employed by the John Deere Tractor Company for less than a year while Clara worked as a waitress.  The two returned to the Bado Community in 1948, where Raymond resided until a stroke took his independent living and he entered the nursing home in 2009.

Raymond was a factory worker at the International Shoe Company in Houston, Missouri starting in 1954.  When the shoe factory was acquired by the Brown Shoe Company in 1963, Raymond followed this work when it was moved to Cabool.  When the opportunity came about to acquire a rural mail carrier contract with the U.S. Postal Service in 1969, Raymond accepted this change of work, and respectfully served the Postal Service under contract until 1988.  In addition to his rural mail route in the morning, beginning in the early seventies, Raymond began association with the Sears retail store in Houston as an appliance repair man in the afternoon.  Raymond continued an appliance repair service on his own and never retired, until his stroke in 2009.

He was beloved by family and the community over the years, known as either the mail man, the repair man, or both.  In his free time, he was a loving and supportive husband and father.  He was a self-taught mechanic and was widely known in Texas County as a motorcycle mechanic.  He enjoyed collecting and riding motorcycles and restoring autos for his children.  He also kept a healthy vegetable garden, supported his parents maintaining their farm and was a member of the Bado Community Church, a Sunday School Teacher and for many years managed all financial and burial plot records and donations to the church cemetery.

Raymond was preceded in death by his wife, Clara; parents, Ray and Erma; brother, Gerald and wife, Bonnie; brother-in-law, Doane Ragain and wife, Joyce and sister-in-law, Norma Klauss. He is survived by his brother, Terry and wife, Beverly (Houston, Mo); daughter, Regina Kay (Springfield, Mo); son, Clinton and wife, Mary (Jefferson City); son, Randy and wife, Karen (Millersville, Mo); grandchildren, Will (Jefferson City), Eli and wife, Sarah (Cape Girardeau, Mo), Jessica Halstead and Travis Caviness (Springfield), Emma Flowers and Patrick Downey (Denver, Colo.), Ben Flowers and wife, Halle (Kansas City, Mo.); great grandchildren, Cora, Kyla and Aiden from Eli; Charlie, Max and Harley from Jessica and newly born Fern from Ben; sisters-in-law, Connie (and Rick) Flowers (Walnut Grove, Mo), Barbara (and Bob) Vallely (Springfield, Mo) and was uncle to many beloved nieces and nephews