Richard went to be with his Lord on February 27, 2021. He was born March 24, 1923 to Homer Arley and Pauline Alvina (nee Hubert) Graves in Fulton, SD. He graduated from Fulton High School in 1941. He went to vocational school in Minneapolis, MN and graduated with honors. While in Fulton there was an accordion player who was to perform at the radio station in the big town of Mitchell, SD and that musician needed some accompaniment. Word was passed around and it was determined that Arley and Richard Graves were available. Hence, Uncle Dick was called upon to play guitar with Lawrence Welk! Dicks prowess as a machinist guaranteed a job with North American Aviation in Los Angeles, CA in 1942. While there he performed essential refit work on B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft for naval carrier use. These were the same aircraft used in the famous Doolittle Raid on Tokyo Japan that same year. Soon thereafter, Dick joined the U.S. Navy and was a veteran of WWII. During the war he received instruction in aircraft maintenance at Max Westheimer Naval Airfield in Norman, OK. It was while stationed there that while on a weekend pass in Oklahoma City as he and some shipmates were passing a church in OKC that he heard a beautiful singing voice. Then and there he told one of his buddies that this was the girl he was going to marry. He went in and met the songstress Ida Mae Looney and the rest is history. After an honorable discharge after the war, Dick and Ida Mae settled in Oklahoma City. He worked awhile at a plating shop and a moving company. He became a territory salesman and spent most of his career in medical equipment and supplements sales. While so employed he developed scores of accounts with doctors and chiropractors throughout the state of Oklahoma, making lifelong friendships with his customers, even helping to set many of them up in their first practice in many a small town. Dick was preceded in passing by his wife Ida Mae (nee Looney) Graves; his mother, Pauline Alvina (nee Hubert) Graves; father, Homer Arley Graves; and five brothers and sisters, Velma Graves Schulte, Arlene Graves Bentz, Charles Irwin Graves, Chester Sidney Graves and Orville Dean Graves. He is survived by his brother, Edwin C. Graves; sisters-in-law Maralyn (Orville) and Gerladine (Edwin); nieces, Kimarie Slay (nee Graves), Lori Eisenhardt (nee Graves), Cara VanSteenis (nee Graves), Molly Anderson (nee Graves), Holly Bender (nee Graves), Candace Grimes (nee Looney); and great-nephew and great-niece Lloyd H. Brower and Jody Jay, as well as numerous other nieces and nephews and very good friends. I can truly say that Uncle Dick was a righteous man with a mighty heart. I leave you with these words I have heard Uncle Dick say many times, "It was so nice of you to take time out of your day to think of me by calling or stopping by," and "Have another Stag beer," even though he never touched alcohol! . No Services