(August 10, 1938-April 9, 2002)

MADRID--The funeral for Robert J. Rafter, 63, of 34 County Route 33, will be at 8:30 p.m. today at Phillips Memorial Home, Madrid, with the Rev. Eunice Tabor, pastor of the United Church of Madrid, officiating. Burial will be in Madrid Cemetery.

 Mr. Rafter died at 11:51 a.m. Tuesday in Canton-Potsdam Hospital, Potsdam.

 Calling hours are 2 to 4 and 7 to 8:30 p.m. today at the funeral home.

 He was employed by the St. Lawrence County Highway Department and was drafted into the Army in 1961, serving until 1963. Following his Army discharge, he returned to the highway department, where he was a heavy-equipment operator until his retirement in 1996, after 37 years.

 Born Aug. 10, 1938, in the town of Louisville, son of Lawrence and Alberta Rowley Rafter, he attended schools in Norwood.

He married Marie Planty on Aug. 10, 1968, at the United Methodist Church.

 He enjoyed playing softball as a pitcher with a town league, card games, hunting, fishing and being in the woods.

 Surviving besides his wife are two sons, Joseph R. Gilbo, Norwood, and Homer Rafter, Madrid; a daughter, Maxine Smith, Knapps Station; a stepson, Clarence Planty, Madrid; a brother, Randy, Ogdensburg; a sister, Sandra Rafter Mattice, Lisbon; five grandchildren, four step-grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

 Two brothers, Merlin and Darrell, and three sisters, Carole Flanders, Beulah Pryce and Beverly Pearson, died before him.

 Donations may be made to the American Diabetes Association or American Heart Association.

(Taken from the Thursday, April 11, 2002 edition of the Watertown Daily Times, page 39).