Mr. Orlin Ellsworth Cramer

Mr. Orlin Ellsworth Cramer, age 92 of Forest Acres, South Carolina, passed away on Monday, August 8, 2022. Orlin was born in Moody, South Dakota on December 10, 1929. He spent his childhood working on the farm, delivering milk, and setting pins at the bowling alley. Orlin joined the United States Army in 1948. While stationed in Ft. Benning, he met his wife, Betty Joyce Weaver, whom he married in 1949. He served three tours in the Korean War and had assignments in Ft. Benning, Japan, Hawaii, Ft. Jackson, Germany and Grand Forks where he taught ROTC at the University of North Dakota. He retired from service in 1969. Orlin worked various jobs for a few years. He eventually settled down on a few acres in Sandy Run, South Carolina where he had an extensive garden and raised chickens. He retired from a Quality Control Supervisor position at an animal feed production plant in 1995. Betty passed away in 1993. He then met Mildred (“Mickey”) Reynolds at a senior citizen’s dance in 1996. In 1997, Orlin and Mickey moved to Forest Acres, South Carolina, and became life partners until her passing in 2010. Orlin remained active in his retirement, enjoying coin and stamp collecting, gardening, history, reading, traveling, volunteering, and golfing three times a week into his late 80s. He was intrigued with his family’s history and spent many years researching the family lineage. He compiled and shared his findings, and was pivotal in starting the tradition of bi-annual family reunions. Orlin is preceded in death by his parents, Orville Alexander and Joanne Ellen (Robey) Cramer, his wife Betty Joyce Weaver, his life partner Mickey Reynolds, sisters Bernice Ardell Magdaleno, Corinne Elaine Rainey, and Judith Evelyn Medeck, and stepdaughter Bonnie Carol Furtick. He is survived by his sister Sharon Lynn Edwards, daughter Jenniffer Louise Dent, grandsons Corey James Cramer and Brandon Ellsworth Furtick, granddaughters Kelly Louise Jacobson and Carol Marie Rawls (Hoyt), four great grand children and one great, great grandchild. A visitation will be held on Thursday, August 11, 2022, 5pm -7pm in the evening at Shives Funeral Home, 7600 Trenholm Road Ext., Columbia. A graveside service will follow on Friday, August 12, 2022 at 10:00 am at Fort Jackson National Cemetery, 4170 Percival Road, Columbia. Orlin was an avid contributor to the needy. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in his honor to the charity of your choice.

Tributes

Mr. Orlin Ellsworth Cramer

December 10, 1929 - August 8, 2022