Joseph C. Acuff

Joseph C. Acuff, 98, died on September 24, 2009, at Sweet Life Rosehill in Shawnee, Kansas.

Joe was born October 6, 1910, in Springfield, Missouri. He graduated from Greenwood High School in Springfield and from Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri in 1932, where he played basketball and was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He married Mildred (Puck) Merritt in 1934. The family moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 1941, where Joe was General Credit Manager for Butler Manufacturing Company for 31 years, retiring in 1975.

Joe and Puck were avid canoeists, logging over 8,000 river miles and were Honorary Life Members of Ozarks Wilderness Waterways Canoe Club, where Joe served as president and in other leadership positions for over 25 years. Both were long- time members of Westport Presbyterian Church. They moved to Forsyth, Missouri in 1976, where Joe was Flotilla Commander of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Puck passed away in 1984, six months after their 50th wedding anniversary. Joe married Betty Leakas in 1985 in Forsyth, Missouri, and they moved to Minnesota in 2000. Betty passed away in 2001. Joe moved back to the Kansas City area in 2004.

Joe was preceded in death by his wives and two brothers. He is survived by his two sons, Dan and his wife Penny of Leawood, Kansas, and Dave of Arlington Heights, Illinois; four grandchildren - Mark Acuff, Matt (Sonnya) Acuff, Michelle Acuff and Jennifer (Luis) Rivera; six great grandchildren, Joe, Wiley, Sarah, Adam, Amaya and Lyana, and Betty’s children, Mary Ann Davis, Nancy Kelm and John Leakas.

The family gives special thanks to the caregivers at Sweet Life Rosehill and Shawnee and Kansas City Hospice.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association (Memories in the Making program), 3846 W. 75th Street, Prairie Village, Kansas 66208.

Memorial Services

Memorial services at 4 p.m. Monday, September 28, 2009, at Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, Kansas. Cremation. Burial will be in the Ozarks Memorial Park, Branson, Missouri.