Merrill Lewis

Wednesday, August 11, 2021
BLAINE, Minn. -- Merrill A. Lewis of Blaine entered into rest Sunday, April 25 2021.
He was the loving father of Marisa "Marcy" Lewis Griggs, Jennifer Nicole Lewis Reid, Robert A. Lewis and Megan Lewis Ringwelski; loving grandfather of Jonathan and Lexie Griggs, Dwayne, Aaron and Tyler Barnett, and Chloe, Rylee and Rowan Ringwelski; beloved son of Russell and Frieda Lewis of Cape Girardeau; and dear brother of Darrell and Russell David Lewis and Verbal Lewis Walter.
Merrill Lewis was born and raised in Cape Girardeau and attended Central High School. He had a successful track record that held up for 18 years.

Merrill served overseas in the U.S. Army. He returned to St. Louis and then lived in Detroit, Michigan, and later settled in Blaine.
A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Scriptural Lutheran Church, County Road 635 in Cape Girardeau.
It will be followed by a celebration of life at the home of Robert Lewis, son of Russell David Lewis.

Merrill Lewis passed away in Blaine, Minnesota on April 25, 2021 from Covid. Merrill was on the SEMO CC teams in the falls of 1964 & 1965. He was on the SEMO Track team in 1965. His sophomore year, the CC team won the MIAA title with Merrill being the teams 2nd runner. Merrill finished 4th in the conference that championship year.

From Verbal Lea, Merril'ls Sister, a little on Merrills life after college:

"Hello Terry and thank you for contactin me. Merrill drove a cab for Kelly(Nip Kelly owned a cab compnay in Cape) a bit after graduation and then went into the army. He was dating Nancy Trumpter at that time and later were married. They had two daughters. They divorced 10 yrs later. He started on the ground floor of the computer world where he met his second wife Chris, they have a daughter and a son. He had a liver transplant in the late 90s. After he and Chris ( his second wife) went their separate ways Merrill continued to work his computer server business. He later sold it and retired, but still wanting to work he drove a bus for children with special needs. He was a good man with a big heart."

From Merrills Team mates:

"Merrill was a terrific runner. We wouldn't have won the 1965 conference X-Country championship if Merrill hadn't run a great race, So sad about his passing."

Clyde Miner 1965 Cross Country team member

"I clearly remember both Merrill and Darrell Lewis. Mainly from cross country. Merrill got me in a bunch of trouble with Coach Rosengarten , during a Memphis indoor track meet. We come out of the bathroom and Merrill says to Coach Rosengarten "Hey Coach, there's no toilet paper in the john".

Coach, for some reason looks directly at ME ( not sure why, but I knew it meant trouble) and says "What do I look like the dang janitor?" And storms off. We nearly fell over in laughter. "

Great discipline, strong work ethic and an all around great guy.
#RIP My Brother.

Lenny Corso 1965 Cross Country team member

1965 Cross Country Championship Team above...

Row 1 L-R: Merrill Lewis, Gary Bond, Larry Schloss, Lenny Corso, Jim Stoverink, Rich Behring.
Row 2 L-R: Coach Bud Reiselt, Rick Barker, Bill Becker, Bill Wirtz.
Not pictured: Clyde Miner, Bucky Benthall, Greg Gassmann, and Pete Manissi