Railroad veteran gardened as retiree
4/24/2009IDA, Mich. - Onza Rose, a longtime railroad worker and Monroe County resident, died in his Ida Township home Wednesday of yet-to-be-determined causes. He was 74.
Mr. Rose spent more than 35 years as a laborer and truck driver for three railroads: the CN, the Grand Trunk Western, and the former Detroit and Toledo Shoreline, according to his daughter, Brenda Kunkel.
He retired in 1996. He and his late wife, Georgia, moved to Monroe County in 1959, the year they were married.
Mr. Rose was a native of Corbin, Ky. Mrs. Rose died in 2001.
In retirement, Mr. Rose gardened and played cards, his daughter said. "He enjoyed his retirement," she explained.
He was a member of the International Brotherhood of Railroad Workers.
Surviving are his daughters, Carolyn Tabbert, Linda McLeod, and Brenda Kunkel; sons, Randall and Timothy; sisters, Myrtle Prewitt, Marie Prewitt , Ivy Lou Harris, and Irene Hinkle; brothers, Lawrence and Arnold, 15 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
The funeral will be at 4 p.m. tomorrow in the Bedford Funeral Chapel, 8300 Lewis Ave., Temperance, where the body will be at noon.
The family requests tributes to the Ida Township Fire Department.