Aug. 9, 1917 - Feb. 26, 2009

ELKHART -- No services are scheduled for Charles Demby Sanders. A private family gathering will take place Monday at the Hope Mausoleum at Rice Cemetery, where Sanders' body will be entombed. Billings Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

Mr. Sanders, 91, of Elkhart, died at 2:40 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 26, 2009) at The Hospice House of Elkhart.

He was born Aug. 9, 1917, in Vienna, Ill., to John M. and Winnie (Allbritton) Sanders.

He married Aline R. Meyer in 1939 in Jackson, Mo. She died in Elkhart in 1989. He married Lucille Ranta in Las Vegas in 1992. She survives, but is convalescing with family in Bristol, Tenn.

Also surviving are one daughter, Patricia Twitchell of Elkhart; two grandchildren; one sister, Evangeline Shelton of Spring Hill, Fla.; and one brother, Wendell Sanders of Spring Hill.

Two sisters, Mary Harris and Opal Jones, and two brothers, Marshall and George Sanders, are deceased.

After moving to the Elkhart area from southern Illinois, Mr. Sanders worked for Nibco of Elkhart, then went to Bendix Corp. in South Bend, where he worked as a machinist in the aircraft division for more than 35 years until he retired in 1983.

He is remembered as a simple man who enjoyed the simple things in life, and especially liked traveling with his second wife, Lucille, to Florida and California, where he lived for several years.

He was mechanically adept and could take apart and rebuild just about anything.

Condolences may be sent at www.billingsfuneralhome.com.