Ralph A. Burnison, age 86, of Woonsocket, died Sunday, June 9, 2013, at the Avera Weskota Memorial Medical Center, Wessington Springs.
Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, June 13 at the Community Center in Alpena.  Burial will be in the Rest Haven Cemetery, Alpena. Military honors will be conducted by the Alpena American Legion. Visitation will be from 1-7 p.m. Wednesday, June 12, at the Kuhler Funeral Home.with a prayer service at 7 p.m.  Visit www.kuhlerfuneralhome.com.
Ralph Adrian Burnison was born June 1, 1927, to Adrian M. and Mary P. (Coburn) Burnison at Avoca, Murray County, Minn. He was the youngest of seven children. Ralph grew up in Minnesota until the family moved back to a farm six miles south of Alpena in 1939. He attended Lane Consolidated School.
Ralph served in the United States Army as a fireman on the Henry R. Kenyen from Aug. 19, 1945 to Sept. 26, 1946.  He was then drafted the second time, serving in the United States Army at Fort Lewis, Wash. from April 18, 1951 to April 24, 1953.
He married Betty Berg of Alpena on Jan. 26, 1952, at Olympia, Wash. After he was discharged from the Army, they moved back and lived on farms south of Alpena for 26 years. In 1978, they bought a home at Woonsocket and then lived at Avon, Wolsey, Wessington Springs and Mitchell before returning to Woonsocket as a resident of the Prairie View Care Center.
Ralph was self-employed in the gravel hauling and digging business for many years and then worked for several gas stations at Woonsocket before doing road construction work up until his retirement in 1985.
In the Burnisons’ earlier married life they were members of the Alpena United Methodist Church where all three of their children were baptized and confirmed. Ralph was a 58-year member of the American Legion.
He is survived by his wife, Betty of Woonsocket; two daughters, Patricia (Bruce) Teveldal of Fairmont, Minn. and Linda (Mike) Kilcoin of Woonsocket; one son, David (Janice) Burnison of Huron; seven grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and one sister, Clarice Anderson of Bloomington, Minn.
He was preceded in death by his parents; four sisters, Mildred, Marjorie, Berniece and Doris, in infancy; one brother, Robert; one granddaughter, Andrea Kilcoin; eight brothers-in-law including, Fred Lehman, Laurence Koyn and Rueben Anderson; and one sister-in-law, Doris Burnison.