Individual Details
John Rudolph Raiha
(23 Jul 1907 - 10 Apr 1972)
From Daily Capital News - Jefferson City, MO Tuesday April 11, 1972
Crash kills two, blocks highway
Lebanon, MO (AP) A couple returning from a winter stay in Arizona was killed Monday in a fiery crash which destroyed a bridge on US Highway 66 several miles east of Lebanon in south central Missouri. The couple was identified as Rudolph Raiha, 65, and Kiestia D. Raiha, 64, both of Rolls, MO. The Raihas were riding in a vehicle which was consumed in flames after colliding with a tractor-trailer rig.
Varner Kesser, 39, of Long Beach, CA, driver of the trailer rig, was hospitalized. There was no estimate available of damage to the bridge. It's collapse made the highway's eastbound lanes impassable and traffic was being detoured to one of the lanes on the westbound side.
The highway patrol said the truck and the other vehicle towing a trailer, collided as both proceeded east, sending the truck's trailer into a creek bed below the bridge and touching off an explosion and fire.
The other vehicle continued on across the bridge, officers reported, and then came to rest in flames. The patrol theorized the blast was caused by propane gas used on the truck for refrigeration.
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From Joan Bates's records:
. Married Keastia and both were killed in a car accident on April 10, 1972. He ran away from where the orphanage placed him and joined his mother when he heard on the radio that she was looking for her children. He was kind, a real gentleman, and blessed with a good marriage.
Crash kills two, blocks highway
Lebanon, MO (AP) A couple returning from a winter stay in Arizona was killed Monday in a fiery crash which destroyed a bridge on US Highway 66 several miles east of Lebanon in south central Missouri. The couple was identified as Rudolph Raiha, 65, and Kiestia D. Raiha, 64, both of Rolls, MO. The Raihas were riding in a vehicle which was consumed in flames after colliding with a tractor-trailer rig.
Varner Kesser, 39, of Long Beach, CA, driver of the trailer rig, was hospitalized. There was no estimate available of damage to the bridge. It's collapse made the highway's eastbound lanes impassable and traffic was being detoured to one of the lanes on the westbound side.
The highway patrol said the truck and the other vehicle towing a trailer, collided as both proceeded east, sending the truck's trailer into a creek bed below the bridge and touching off an explosion and fire.
The other vehicle continued on across the bridge, officers reported, and then came to rest in flames. The patrol theorized the blast was caused by propane gas used on the truck for refrigeration.
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From Joan Bates's records:
. Married Keastia and both were killed in a car accident on April 10, 1972. He ran away from where the orphanage placed him and joined his mother when he heard on the radio that she was looking for her children. He was kind, a real gentleman, and blessed with a good marriage.
Events
| Birth | 23 Jul 1907 | Sawyer, Minnesota, United States |  | ||
| Death | 10 Apr 1972 | car accident with wife - Lebanon, Missouri, United States | |||
| Marriage | Klestia Delano Long |
Families
| Spouse | Klestia Delano Long (1908 - 1972) |
| Father | Jonas Jeremiasson "Jeremiaanpoika" Raiha (1871 - 1913) |
| Mother | Liisa Hilja "Lizzie" Tjader (1887 - 1970) |
| Sibling | Arnold Emil Raiha (1909 - 1971) |
| Sibling | Sylvia Emily Raiha (1910 - 1994) |
| Sibling | Jonas William Raiha (1912 - 1964) |
| Sibling | Martha Elizabeth "Phinney" Raiha (1913 - 1984) |
Notes
Birth
On his certificate of birth, he is listed as John Rudolph Tjaderfrom Joan Bates's notes:
In later years she would tell Rudolph his name, the name of his real father. Oh, her sister Anna knew his name all right, too.
Anna had watched while HE asked her for a dance on Midsummer's Night. This was after he put his fiddle down, ending the sweet sounds he wove into the summer night with the other fiddlers. He had talent, that one, playing deftly while his eyes roamed the Hall, following the tall and slender farm girl from Tyrnava as she went through the crowd, talking to people. And he knew she was watching him back!
Now the boy with the shock-white hair flew her in the air with his graceful dancing, as sure of himself as when he tucked the fiddle under his chin to release the music within him.
Anna watched them thoughtfully.
It was a romance to last the summer and into the fall. He choose to return to his parents homestead for Christmas. Liisa did not know where to write him, to tell him her news.
Anna's tongue clicked in reprimand all the spring of 1907. Why should her sister be upset, she was not the one who missed the chance to go to nursing school!
Liisa was no longer slender, not even after the birth in July. The Boy would never know. She thought Anna was writing their parents in Finland about this event...she would write them nothing herself. Stubborn. This was Amerikka and everything was always possible.
Rudolph was perfect and sweet, her American son, born to freedom. Born to make what he could of life in a new land. Her son would get somewhere, she would see to that.
Of course, she would have to make something of herself as well. No more would she live in Duluth and do cleaning at the St. Louis Hotel. No more would she share her homestead lives of a brother or a sister. She had to get her own life. To take care of Rudolph.
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He ran away from where the orphanage placed him and joined his mother when he heard on the radio that she was looking for her children. He was kind, a real gentleman, and blessed with a good marriage.