Henderson deaths

By The Home News

Thursday, April 30, 2009 | 3:08 p.m.

Geraldine Crawford

Geraldine Clara Crawford, 84, died April 9 in Las Vegas.

The Henderson resident was born Sept. 12, 1924, in Michigan. She was a homemaker.

She is survived by sons Gene Crawford Jr. of Henderson and William Crawford of California, daughter Sandra Roger of Idaho and sister Bernice Arnold of California.

Services will be private.

Hites Funeral Home handled the arrangements.

Alton Dean Jensen

Alton Dean Jensen, 81, of Boulder City died April 27.

Jensen was born May 9, 1927, in Centerfield Utah, the son of Alton H. Jensen and Arvilla Roylance. He graduated from Gunnison Valley High School and enlisted in the U.S. Navy where he served in the South Pacific during World War II. After an honorable discharge, he returned to Utah and enrolled in Utah Technical College, where he studied architectural drafting and attended flight training.

He was commissioned into the U. S. Army Reserves and served in the Civil Air Patrol. After apprenticeship, he started and developed his company, Alton Dean Jensen, Architect, in Salt Lake City, which he later relocated to the Las Vegas area.

He is well known for his design of numerous community and civic buildings, business and residential structures, and design and remodel work for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, all throughout the western United States.

He was a member of the Quiet Birdmen, the LDS Church, American Institute of Architects and the Mooney Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Anita; sons Dale (wife Lori) and Ryan; brother, Clayne; three grandchildren, Dane, Eric and Keri.

He was preceded in death by his son Bradley.

A viewing will be held May 1 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the LDS Church, 916 5th St., Boulder City. A graveside service will be held at 3:30 p.m., May 2 in the Gunnison City Cemetery, Gunnison, Utah.

The family wishes that in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Lend-A-Hand of Boulder City, 400 Utah St., Boulder City, Nevada, 89005.

Boulder City Family Mortuary handled the arrangements.

Robert Peace

Robert Julian Peace, 77, died April 25 at home.

Born July 31, 1931, in Hammond, Ind., he was a retired craps dealer and an Army veteran of the Korean War. He moved to Las Vegas in 1967.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy, of Las Vegas; daughters Sheila Dial of Las Vegas, Teresa Arquitola of Albuquerque and Nancy Almanzan of Henderson; sons Kenneth Peace of Pico Rivera, Calif., Timothy Peace and Ronald Peace, both of Las Vegas; grandchildren Zachary, Carley, Robert, Justin, Jordan, Chavon, Jessica, Emilio, Andrei and Amber; great grandchildren Dayton, Logan, Austin, Alyssa and Samantha; and sisters Frances, Wertis, Betty Jean, Shirley, Sandy and Judy.

He was preceded in death by his son Robert Peace.

Visitation will be held 4-7 p.m. April 30 at Palm Mortuary, 800 S. Boulder Highway, Henderson.

Funeral service will be held at 11:30 a.m. May 1 at Palm Mortuary, and a graveside service will be held at 1:20 p.m. at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

Palm Mortuary handled the arrangements.

Cherie Wills

Cherie Wills, 82, of Henderson died April 22 after a long struggle against cancer.

On graduation from Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Ill., in 1948, she began work as a reservations agent in the Chicago Loop office of Trans World Airlines. Travel to foreign countries became a dream, and then a reality and adventure.

Two years later while on a honeymoon flight to Europe with her husband, Robert H. Wills, on take-off from Shannon, Ireland, she alerted the flight crew to a leak in the hydraulic system. With fluid streaming from a wing tank, the four engine Constellation returned to the airfield for replacement of fluid and an apology by a ground crewman who had failed to replace the cap.

Later, she transferred to Northwest Airlines and took her first trip to Asia, where she and her husband passed through rebel roadblocks to visit the active volcano crater atop Mount Taal in the Philippines.

On other trips she visited such exotic locations as the Taj Mahal near Agra, India; explored the root-bound ruins of Angkor Wat in Myanmar and paused at the "call to worship" in Muslim mosques of Indonesia. She drank native beer at sunset on the lower slopes of ice-bound Mount Everest and gambled that North Korean soldiers would not see her slip her toe over the 38th parallel.

When the births of three sons interrupted her airline career, she became a travel agent in the Milwaukee area, working for several Milwaukee and Elm Grove agencies, and then as a free lancer. She retired in 1990.

In retirement, she found a new interest and talent — investing. She and her husband moved to Henderson, where they became founding partners of the Wall Street Jitters, an investment club at the Sun City McDonald Ranch. She soon was researching and analyzing companies.

Cherie Wills served for several years as a volunteer at St. Joseph Hospital, Milwaukee, and as president of its Women's Auxiliary. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and served as president of the Elm Brook alumnae chapter. She was secretary of the West Side chapter of the League of Women Voters and was a member of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). She was a volunteer tutor at Rufus King High School.

She attended Gulf Park College, Gulfport, Miss.; received recognition from the Phi Kappa Phi honor society at Illinois Wesleyan; and did postgraduate work at Northwestern University, Evanston, and the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

She was born in Bloomington, Ill., and lived for 39 years in Brookfield. Her husband was the retired editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, publisher of the Milwaukee Journal and president of Journal Sentinel Inc.

Besides her husband of 60 years, she is survived by three sons, Robert L. Wills and his wife, Beth, of Sauk City, Wis.; Michael H. Wills and his wife, Maria, of Manheim, Pa., and Kendall J. Wills and his wife, Peggy, of Beijing, China; and eight grandchildren.

Memorials are suggested to the Land o' Lakes Public Library, Highway B, P.O. Box 450, Land o' Lakes, WI. 54540.