Obituary: William E. "Ned" Bell

A memorial service for William E. "Ned" Bell, 89, of Boise, Idaho, will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at FitzHenry's Funeral Home.

Mr. Bell died Sept. 2, 2003. He was born May 14, 1914, on the family farm in Pleasanton, Kan., to Edward and Alice Bell.

Mr. Bell came to Nevada when he was 21 years old and worked at the Rio Tinto Copper Mine outside of Mountain City. He married Christina Smith, the local schoolteacher, and they were together 55 years until her death in 1994. They moved to Reno, where he was a carpenter until 1994.

He married Mary Shelby of Boise in 1996.

In addition to his first wife, he was preceded in death by brothers Pat and Jim and sister Elsie Bastik.

Among his survivors are his wife, Mary Shelby of Boise; daughters and sons-in-law Connie and Larry Rayher of Santa Rosa, Calif., and Helen and Ray Oster of Carson City; grandchildren Ethan Smith, Raymond E. Oster, Jeremy Smith, Laura Oster, Daniel Oster and Amanda Smith; great-grandsons Arlen Smith and Liam and Aden Oster; sisters Rebecca Speaks and Thelma Haws and brother Charles, all of Kansas; and stepdaughters Shari Sandvol and Renee Cornwall of Boise and their children and grandchildren.