Obituary - Virgil “Dale” Lockard

Virgil “Dale” Lockard, 73, died Saturday, August 1, 2015 at his home. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, August 5, 2015 at the Atkinson Funeral Home in Adrian, Missouri, with burial in Crescent Hill Cemetery, Adrian. Visitation will be from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 4, 2015 at the Atkinson Funeral Home in Adrian. Memorial contributions may be made to the Frontier Village Railroad or Bates County Children’s Center. 

Dale was born April 2, 1942, the son of Emanuel Lee and Verna Faye (Miller) Lockard. Dale attended elementary school at Passaic and later graduated high school at Adrian High, where he loved to play football. On July 23, 1961, he was united in marriage to his wife of 54 years, Ruby Pauline Estes. To this union, three daughters and one son were born.

Dale proudly served in the United States Air Force for about four years, after which he served his community as an Adrian police officer and sheriff’s deputy in Bates County. He sat two terms on the Adrian City Council, was a charter member of the Adrian Optimist Club, served as a volunteer fireman, and was a member of the Adrian Christian Church. In 2002, after working for thirty years, he retired from the Osage Valley Electric Cooperative, where he became life-long friends with many of his co-workers.

Dale worked hard and played hard, usually in the driver’s seat of ski boats, motorcycles or pick- up trucks (whichever the season allowed). He loved classic country music and late night bowls of ice cream, almost as much as he loved his wife and his four kids. It is with this appreciation of family (and extra chocolate syrup) that he taught his five grandkids to love the lake water just as he had for more than seventy years. He loved to have a good time, and his joyful heart gives us peace and allows us to imagine that right now he is sitting on a lake-front piece of heaven, breathing deeply and catching up with his daughter. Dale was well loved by his family and friends and will be remembered for having a life well lived.

Dale is survived by his wife, Ruby, his son, Martin Lockard, and wife, Jamie of Lee’s Summit, MO, two daughters, Deborah Powell, and husband, Brad of Butler, MO, Pamela Hulen and husband, Kevin of Kansas City, MO; his son-in-law, Tim Crippen of Olathe, KS; his mother, Faye Lockard Blankenship of Adrian, MO; grandson, Lee Crippen of Denver, CO, granddaughter, Haley Lockard of Columbia, MO, granddaughter, Paige Lockard of Lee’s Summit, MO, granddaughter, Emily Hulen of Kansas City, MO, grandson, Shawn Hulen of Kansas City, MO; one brother, Gene Lockard and wife, Sue of Butler, MO; one sister, Judy Schnoebelen and husband, Bob of Butler, MO, and many nieces and nephews.

Sadly, Dale was preceded in death by his father, Emanuel Lee Lockard, and his eldest daughter, Angela, who passed in August of 1995. Virgil Dale Lockard has left a legacy of hard work and public service that his family and community will never forget.