Patrick ‘Ed’ Prather

Patrick “Ed” Prather passed away in Ozark, Missouri, on April 4, 2019, at the of age 84, with family. Born in 1935 in Englewood, Colorado, he grew up in Osceola and attended Iowa State University.

Ed earned his Air Force pilot wings, received his commission, and married Joan Camery in 1956. He flew to various continents around the world, earning the Air Medal during operations in the Congo, and flying in Tennessee, France, Japan and North Carolina. He dropped troops from the 82nd Airborne and sat alert near Iwo Jima supporting the nuclear alert mission in the Pacific theater in the 1950s. He then joined TWA in 1965, and moved to Lake Quivira, Kansas, in 1967.

Ed loved jogging and biking around the lake. He was an avid sailboat racer with his Y-Flyers, and loved singing and playing numerous instruments in the Lake Quivira Funeral and Marching Dixieland Jazz Band. He served the community as treasurer for the Sailing Yacht Club, as well as volunteer firefighter. He helped Quivira youth organizations with his children’s interests at the Saddle Club, as Little League baseball coach and as Cub Scout leader.

His most exciting time at Quivira was when his grandkids moved to Lake Quivira in 2001.

He is survived by his daughter Debbie of Springfield, Missouri; son and daughter-in-law, David and Vicki Prather of Lake Quivira, Kansas; and grandchildren, Mandy of Kansas City, Missouri, and Spencer of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings. Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds ... and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air ... and put out my hand and touched the face of God." – excerpt from "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Jr.

Services will be 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 29, at Maple Hill Cemetery with Pastor Chuck DeVos officiating.