Merrill Chumbly O'Neil
Marriages
Ruth Ione Thomason - April 8, 1946
Burial Details
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 5B - September 10, 2010
Mr. O’Neil was born in Laramie,
WY on August 24, 1922 to Frank
Mathias O’Neil and Neva Agnes
(Chumbley) O’Neil. He attended
grade school across the road from
the family home on the Johnson
Ranch on Herrick Lane northwest
of Laramie. The family
moved to the Saratoga, WY area
when he was 13 and lived and
worked on various area ranches. Merrill served in the Civilian Conservation
Corp. for just over two years and returned to Saratoga and
continued to work on various area ranches but moved to the town of
Saratoga when he was 18. At the beginning of WWII, he volunteered
for the US Army Air Corp., serving in England and France
during the war. He was discharged at Ft. Lupton, CO in October,
1945 and returned to Saratoga. He worked as a mechanic and met
and married Ruth Ione Thomason on April 8, 1946. Merrill continued
to work as a mechanic, owned a gas station and hauled logs in
the mountains around Saratoga until 1965 when he went to work for
CJ Abbott Construction out of Laramie. During that time, he and
Ruth traveled extensively in southern Wyoming and northern Colorado
and settled in the Palisade area.
They had two sons, Kerry Lee (killed in a truck accident in 1973)
and Douglas Edward of Ucross, WY. He was preceded in death by
his wife, one son, two brothers and a sister. He is survived by one
son, two grandsons, three great grandchildren, and his sister, Barbara
Weatherill of Oregon City, OR.
There will be a celebration of his life at a gathering at Callahan-Edfast
Mortuary at 3:00 p.m. Saturday, September 11, 2010. Final interment
will be in Laramie, WY. The family requests in lieu of
flowers that donations be made to Hospice & Palliative Care of
Western Colorado.
