Mr. Earl Van Cape

Mr. Earl Van Cape, 81, longtime Bartlesville/Dewey, Okla. area and former Dalton resident, died on Saturday, April 18, 2015 at the Jane Phillips Medical Center.

Memorial graveside services will be held at 12:45 p.m. on Sunday, July 5, 2015 in the Dalton Cemetery in Dalton, with Pastor Leon "Bud" Gillespie officiating.

Memorials have been established to the Earl Cape Memorial Fund, c/o Dewey FFA Club, One Bulldogger Road, Dewey, OK 74029

You may post condolences online at http://www.holechekfuneralhomes.com.

Mr. Cape was born in Dalton on Feb. 26, 1934 to Robert and Mina (Mauer) Cape. He received his education at Dalton and graduated from Dalton High School. He then served in the U.S. Army Intelligence Service in the late 1950s until receiving his Honorable Discharge. He then returned to Nebraska where he was employed by Burlington Northern Railroad as a railroad agent in Nebraska and then in Wyoming. In 1968 he was employed with Reda Pump in Thermopolis, Wyo. and was also a volunteer firefighter and served as Chief of the volunteer fire department. In 1973, he transferred to Bartlesville with Reda Pump and retired in 1988 as an industrial engineering technician. Following his retirement he remained in the Bartlesville area where he returned to his roots and began raising cattle and horses. He was a member of the Antique Tractor Club, he loved to fish and enjoyed having coffee with his friends. He was known among his friends and neighbors as the "fix it and go to guy" in the area.

Mr. Cape is survived by his three children: Dennis Cape and wife T.J. of Forsyth, Mont., Lorena Holland and husband Lynn of Omaha and Shelly Kennedy and husband Ron of Mandeville, La .; two brothers: Jerry Cape of Bradenton, Fla. and Kayo Cape of Dalton; three sisters: Roberta Pierce of Bellevue, Wash., Sharon Cape of Estes Park, Colo. and Connie Ankeny of Dalton; five grandchildren: Justin Cape, Sarah Holland, Rhiannon Holland, Thomas Kennedy and James Kennedy; numerous nieces and nephews and close family friends, the LaSpisa family of Bartlesville.

He was preceded in death by his parents, four brothers: Martin, Howard, Charlie and John, and two sisters: Gladys Runge and Jean Hall.