With his loving family at his side Ralph Dennis died peacefully in his lifelong home Sunday, February 11th 2018.

His long and memorable life began as a resident of the Bevo Neighborhood. Ralph never strayed far from the modest family home on Wilcox where he was born June 21, 1931. It is the same home where his mother, Winifred, was raised. Winifred would eventually marry Oliver. They remained in the home and raised three sons: Oliver, Ralph, and Richard.

As a young boy Ralph attended St. John the Baptist grade school. His younger years were filled with trips to the family farm in Oakville. He also spent many a day on fishing trips with neighbor Joe Spratt. In his teenage summers, Ralph was a worker at Camp Don Bosco for the Boy Scouts where he tended horses for trail rides and made many life long friends. At a young age Ralph also demonstrated a profound fondness for hamburgers, so much so that his Uncle Schimmel came to call him “Wimpy” after the Popeye character that also craved burgers. It was a nickname that stuck with him throughout his life with friends and family. The most important person in his life would later lovingly shorten that nickname to Wimp.

As he grew, Ralph attended and graduated from South Side Catholic High School, now known as St. Mary’s. He attended college for a semester in Cape Girardeau, but the call of the old neighborhood beckoned him to come home. So he returned to the house on Wilcox.

Ralph’s time at home was short-lived though. He received a friendly letter from the President of the United States; it began with the word “Greetings” and with that he was off to service in the United States Army during the Korean War. The Army saw fit to assign him to the Signal Corps and station him Germany. In later years he filled in stories about what he actually did in service, with more exciting tales of the Alps and German Brau Haus visits. As long as he wasn’t stepping on anyone’s toes, life in Germany agreed with the young Private’s temperament. In 1951, it was back stateside and to Fort Knox for discharge and then the quickest way back to South St. Louis.

Like many young men, Ralph worked a variety of jobs, mostly to pay the bills, including the bills for a clubhouse on the Meramec River he shared with friends Joe, Bernie, Don, Ferd and Carl. It was the 1950’s, they were all in their 20’s, with the club, the river and nothing but the future in front of them. It was a grand time to be young in America.

As the decade wore on Ralph continued to enjoy his carefree life and days with his friends on the river. One day in 1958 he met a petite young lady originally from the boot heel of Missouri. She had kindly helped him out one evening when he was feeling under the weather. After that less than auspicious start, though, they found each other’s company enjoyable. Soon Ralph and Shirley Rose Bacon were inseparable. They had found the one thing in life we all hope to find, the perfect person to spend the rest of your life with.

December 12th, 1958 was a cold day with the high temperature barely reaching 20 degrees, but even the first blast of winter did not deter Ralph and Shirley that day because it was the day they had chosen to marry. They had only known each other a few months when they decided to elope and be married by a judge in Waterloo, Illinois. They would later have the marriage blessed at St. John the Baptist.

Their first year together was a whirlwind of change including the birth of their first son Timothy. Living in a small cottage on Wilcox, Ralph’s family got settled in and started to grow again. Next they welcomed their only daughter, Pamela. When number three was announced it was 1962 and time to move back to the familiar walls of Ralph’s childhood home. Grandma and Grandpa were now retired and decided to pass the house on to Ralph and his family. John was welcomed home from the hospital and joined the rest of the family at 4468. A few years later Patrick rounded out the kids as number four. As the 60’s came to a close that’s also when number five, Matthew, made his first appearance inside the comfortable walls of the Wilcox home.

Ralph by now had settled into his job at Service Blueprint Company, where he made sure the plans from some of the most famous building projects in St. Louis history, including Busch Stadium and the Arch, made it to the job site. The weekends, though, belonged to the family. Ralph liked to take long rides with the family to explore new parks and rivers. The kids mainly called it getting lost or so it seemed to them. Many other weekends Ralph endlessly shuttled kids to and from CYC games. From soccer to basketball to softball and baseball, sports became almost another full-time job for him. It wasn’t unusual to have 4 to 5 different games to attend in one Saturday because everyone wanted Dad at their game cheering for them and he happily obliged. Many times the family station wagon also carried other teammates who needed a ride and could always depend on Ralph. In fact, the constant flow of kids, teenagers, and young adults in and out of the Dennis household became the norm. It wasn’t always smooth running, but together Ralph and Shirley made it work.

Another favorite activity was going to Grandpa and Grandma’s house. Whether it was Bill and Lil’s house in the “country” or Ollie and Winnie at Lake of the Ozarks, many a workday Friday ended with Ralph rushing home to load up the station wagon and driving with the kids asleep for a weekend visit. There was always fishing involved on a favorite stream or onboard the pontoon boat at the lake. If you were Ralph’s kid, you learned to fish, and longed for the day you could proudly bait your own hook and catch a fish without losing your rod and reel in the water.

Tim, Pam, John, Pat, and Matt grew older and moved out, some far and some not as far. Ralph and Shirley proudly improved their home and the kids returned for visits. Dad wouldn’t hear of moving. In fact when he played the lottery he never aspired to move any place better if he won, only to have everyone retire and spend all of our days fishing. Soon some returned with the best gift any son or daughter could give a parent, grandchildren. Zachary, Jacob, Michael, Rachael, Daniel, Jack and Josie, and great grandson Trenton. All came to be loved and adored by Ralph and Shirley.

In the end we all returned to the little house on Wilcox. It was all about family and love. We all saw that in Ralph’s eyes, the way he loved Shirley, and the way he loved his entire family up to the end. Ralph Dennis wasn’t the biggest deal in the world, but he was the biggest in our world. We will miss him.

Funeral Services Monday, February 19th, 2018. 11:00 AM at St. John the Baptist Church at 4200 Delor St., St. Louis, Missouri.

A celebration of life is being held Monday, February 19th from 5pm to 9pm at the Elks Lodge, 6330 Heege Rd.

In lieu of flowers please donate to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.