Joel Dean Fitzgerald, age 88, died on June 23, 2018 at Cedar Village Care Center, Ness City. He was born on October 18, 1929 in Dodge City to Bryan and Jennie Holman Fitzgerald. He was born 11 days before the stock market crash of the Great Depression.

He was a 1947 graduate of Ness City High School, a graduate of the University of Kansas and the San Francisco College of Mortuary Science. He was a United States Air Force veteran having served in Korea at the 58th TAC Hospital. He returned to Ness City in 1956 and began working as the administrator, X-ray tech and lab tech at the Ness County Hospital for four years. In 1961 he began working with his father at Fitzgerald Funeral Home and Fitzgerald Furniture. He was recognized for 50 years of funeral service by the Kansas Funeral Directors Association in 2012. He was a member of the First Baptist Church and Rotary Club both of Ness City. He was an Eagle Scout and was active in the Ness City Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts for many years.

On October 20, 1961 he married Ann McCracken in Ness City. She survives. Other survivors include son, Joel Fitzgerald II and his wife Judy of Ness City; daughter, Heather Seratte and her husband Scott of Lawrence; sister, Mary Jonette McKee of Norman, Oklahoma; and six grandchildren: Jacob, Ethan and Evann Seratte and Elijah, Isaiah and Silas Fitzgerald.

Funeral service will be on Thursday, June 28, 2018, 10:30 a.m. at the First Baptist Church, Ness City followed by burial in the Ness City Cemetery.

Friends may call at Fitzgerald Funeral Home on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 from 9:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. with the family present from 6-8 p.m.

Memorial contributions may be given to the First Baptist Church and Ness County Health Care Foundation.