Champaign Urban Courier
January 2, 1953

Charles R. Close, 72, of Paxton, Wall township, Northwest of here, died 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in Paxton Community Hospital, where he was admitted a short time earlier. He had been suffering from a heart ailment for several months.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday in olive Branch Baptist church, Wayne city, with the Rev. Harold Mayberry officiating. Burial will be in the Olive Branch Cemetery. Friends may call Tuesday night and until 5 p.m. Wednesday at Brown Funeral home, Paxton.

Mr. Close had been born April 23, 1881, in Wayne County, son of John and Martha Ellis Close.  He lived in Wayne County 25 years before moving to Melvin. Later he moved to the Paxton community where he had lived the last 17 years.

Mr. Close was married to Miss Erlie Smith in February 1904, in Wayne County. He was a member of the Olive Branch Church.

He leaves his widow, three daughters, Mrs. Jack Linder, Paxton; Mrs. Alfred Cork Rankin; and Mrs. Robert Cork. Elgin;15 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and two sisters, Mrs. Rosie Herbert and Mrs. Ida Morgan, both of Mt. Vernon.