Merton Ray Stoneking died Thursday. December I, 2022 at Gower Convalescent Center, Gower Missouri after a prolonged illness of end stage Parkinson’s Disease complicated by recent Covid, heart and lung disease. He was born at the farm home October 7, 1939 near Avard, Oklahoma the 7th of 8 children to parents Seth Thomas Stoneking and Clara Laverna (Shook) Stoneking.

As a young child, the family moved to Kiowa, Kansas where he attended primary and secondary schools graduating from Kiowa High School in 1957. While in school he became an accomplished musician with the piano and voice which he enjoyed performing into old age. He then attended college at Kansas State University majoring in Business and Accounting.

Merton then moved to Wichita, Kansas where he worked with an ambulance service and joined the Lighthouse Christian Church. His next move was to Minneapolis, Minnesota employed as an accountant and auditor for an outdoor interstate billboard advertising firm for several years. When that firm sold, he worked for and with the Lighthouse Church in California, Wyoming and Minneapolis, then US Bank until medical retirement in 2015.

Merton was preceded in death by his parents and siblings Virginia, Ronald, Neva, Albert, Laurel (Esther), and Lee.

He is survived by a brother, James K Stoneking, of Plattsburg, Missouri and many nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews.

Cremation took place with the ashes interned with his mother and his sister's (Esther) ashes at Prairie Home Cemetery near Esbon, Kansas.