Curtis Monroe Rhoades

Curtis M. Rhoades of Emporia, born on January 26, 1919, passed away on May 9, 2024, at Homestead of Emporia. He was 105. Mr. Rhoades was the fifth of seven children born in Ashland, Kansas, to Era and Anne Rhoades and the first of the children to be born in a hospital and not on the family farm. He graduated from Kansas State Teachers College with a teaching degree in math and science in 1943 and was immediately sent to Naval Midshipman School at Northwestern University in Chicago to fulfill his military obligations. In a group ceremony with other newly minted Naval officers and fiancees he married his college sweetheart, Winona Griffith, August 20, 1943. She preceded him in death June 9, 2010.

After graduating in the top 10% of his class of 1000 from Naval Midshipman school he was sent to Harvard University for further studies, specifically, the new technology of radar. From Cambridge he went to Florida for sub-chaser training. For the next two years in Virginia he taught navigation, piloting and compass adjustment to future ship crews, and then he was selected as Executive Officer onboard an LSMR or Landing Ship Medium Rocket in Norfolk, Virginia. While Curtis was stationed at Norfolk, Winona gave birth to Kenton, their first of three children.

On July 4th, 1945, Curtis received orders to head to Galveston, Texas, and to pick up a new ship, LSMR 512 as Executive Officer to replace the former Executive Officer of 512 who had gone blind. While Curtis traveled to Texas to take charge of 512, the LSMR on which he had previously been assigned left port in Virginia and sailed into the Pacific to join the battle against the Japanese fleet. Shortly after entering the Pacific it was hit by a Japanese Kamikaze plane and went down with no survivors. Later in his life, Curtis expressed his gratitude for his survival and also his deep regret at the loss of so many good men with whom he had served and gotten to know.

With the war over, he was discharged from the Navy and in 1946 moved back to Kansas. For the trip he had purchased a used 1937 Chevrolet coupe. Many consumer items were rationed and difficult or impossible to purchase, so the car was outfitted with four old retread tires. Just before they reached Richmond, Virginia, one of the retreads blew out and Curtis pulled into a service station to see about getting a replacement. To his good fortune the attendant asked if he would like four new tires. Unbeknownst to Curtis, the rationing, at least for tires, was off.

With four new tires he turned the car west to Kansas and they drove nonstop, with baby Kenton in a small bassinet tucked behind the seat to begin the next phase of life. In Kansas he found temporary work in Marysville at Firestone and then at Marysville Mutual Insurance as a claims adjuster. Being a numbers guy, a former farm kid and with an outgoing personality the insurance business seemed like a good fit and five years later he purchased Bennett Insurance, a small insurance agency in Emporia where he moved his expanded family of five. He operated and expanded this agency until 1980 when he sold it and retired. With more free time he and Winona relaxed on their small farm near Olpe where Curtis tended to his horses and Winona to her gardens. In the 1980s Curtis and Winona volunteered with R.V.I.C.S. (Roving Volunteers In Christ’s Service) and traveled throughout the US and Canada in their RV helping small churches with repair and building projects. In 1989 he and Winona founded a chapter of Habitat for Humanity in Emporia, where he presided as president and oversaw the building of houses for deserving families.

He and Winona regularly attended church services at the First Christian Church where Curtis sang in the choir and often sang solos, only retiring from the choir at the age of 101.

Surviving are sons Kenton Rhoades, Arlington, Massachusetts; David Rhoades, Arkansas City, Kansas; daughter, Carol Rhoades, Emporia, Kansas; Grandchildren Naomi Gonsalves, Arlington, Massachusetts; Sydney Hankins, Arkansas City, Kansas; and Winona Kegin, Lawrence, Kansas; great-grandchildren Sydona Kegin, Curtis Kegin and Abraham Gonsalves; brother Keith Rhoades, Maryland and several nieces and nephews and his companion, Imegene Marsh of Emporia.

Curtis bequeathed his body for the study of science to the University of Kansas Medical Center.  The memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m., Monday, October 7, 2024, at the First Christian Church in Emporia.  The family will receive friends an hour prior to the service.  Memorial contributions to the First Christian Church can be sent in care of Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home, P.O. Box 175, Emporia, Kansas 66801.