The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-03-27
Ralph B. Joy Dies at Waukesha, Wis
consin, This Forenoon After a
Long Illness and strus-
gle for Life.
POPULAR IN KEoKUK
Patriotic to the Gore and of Brilliant
Mind, He Was Very Democrat
ic and Cordial to Every
body He Knew.

Ralph Bracket Joy died this fore.
noon of diabetes in sanitarium at
! Waukesha. Wis. His wife was with
him, and his father left at noon after
receiving telegram telling OF the
death, which was not unexpected.
/ Ralph R Joy was born and reared
| in Keoklk and was one Of the most
generally popular younge men who
ever lived here. After getting through
college and working in the grocery
jobbing house of Kellogg-Birge, he
lmoved to Duluth few years ago to
take a responsible executive position
in the jobbing house of Gowan-Len-
ming Brown company, where he re-
NAMED until failing health compelled
/ his retirement.
He was twenty-seven years old,
born September S, 1891. and married
October 16, 1912, to Miss Viola Ness
of Topeka, Kansas, who survives
him with a daughter, Margery, four
years old; his father, G. r. JOY; his
brother, Carroll Joy, cadet at the
naval academy at Annapolis, and his
sister, Mrs. Hugh J. Robertson.
Was Brilliant and Social.
| After attending the public schools
of Keokuk, he went first to Knox
| college and then had a year at
Princeton, after which he returned
to Knox where he graduated in 1912.
He had brilliant mind and in col
lege carried the work with ease,
finding time for various college
activities.
! His tendencies were always very
democratic, and his contact with his
fellows was marked by much sincere
geniality as well as hard sense. When
The was. school boy he sold the
Saturday Evening Post in Keokuk,
and he never had any sympathy
with snobs. When he was in high
school here, and when he in later life
worked here in the manufacturing
and jobbing houses, no young man
had more associates, friends and ad-
mirers than Ralph Joy.
| He was a member of Plymouth
/ Congregational church at Duluth,
was a Mason, a member of the
Modern Woodmen, and member OF
Beta Theta Pi.
| A Patriotism That Counts.
! His patriotism was expressed in
/ very few words and much action.
When he foresaw the entrance OF
America into the world war, he left
good position with wholesale
grocery house and enlisted IN Com
ipany l., of the First Iowa national
guard, which at that time contained
hardly anybody in his own social set,
but a bunch of real men who after
ward helped make the 168th infantry
world famous.
| He went on the Rio Grande expedi-
ton with the regiment, and while 1t
was still at Camp Dodge was detail
ed to the quartermaster's department.
! and made a sergeant. His record In
the national guard and later in the
| national army was an excellent one,
and he won high commenda ton from
the officers over him by his efficient
work
Kept Out of the Army.
/ He was in the supply company on
the Rio Grande and when the troops
were brought home, he returned,
later entering active service at Fort
iDes Moines, and had charge of
rationing the guards scattered all
over the state at that time
His captain, his colonel and the
post commander at Fort Des Moines,
! all regular army men, later Joined in
recommending him for a commission
in the national army, and 1t was
ordered and awaited only the sigma
ture of President Wilson to make
him lieutenant. His good work had
earned this.
It was then that regular army
surgeon discovered that he had dia-
betes. In an effort to keep him in
the army, and accede to his implor-
ing arguments that he be retained,
The was given furlough for three
months to try to remove the symp-
itoms. He went to the best physicians
in America, but obtained only a
stationary condition of his disease.
He was nearly heartbroken when he
realized that 1t was impossible for