Dave Rapue

David William Rapue, 85, died Feb. 6, at Morningside Place in Overland Park, KS, surrounded by family.

Born April 30, 1939, in St Jo, MO, he had lived in the Johnson County area for many years, and graduated from Olathe High School. After high school, he served in the U.S. Army for two years.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Edith West Rapue; and two brothers, Freddy Rapue, and John Rapue. He is survived by his wife, Loralee Baker-Rapue, (rural Johnson County), two sons, Curtis Rapue & partner Mike Karstens (Olathe), and John J.R. Rapue (Leavenworth), two stepsons and daughters-in-law, Keene Saxon III & Melissa (Spring Hill) and Luke Saxon & Ashley (Colorado Springs, CO), 10 grandchildren, his sister, Deloris Priest, (Olathe), and several nieces and nephews.

Although David and his family moved often while he was growing up, he had the happy gift of making and keeping friends wherever he landed. As a youngster, he especially tried to keep up with his older brother John and John’s friends. Unfortunately, David could rarely keep up with the older boys no matter how fast he chased after them.

But then came the day when the Rapue family got the first television set in Sunflower Village, where they lived at the time. David and John could hardly wait to get home from school to watch TV!! Unfortunately, while David loved to watch a show called B BAR B, John only wanted to watch Sky King. With all the arguing and wrestling that went on over selecting their programs, Mama laid down the law: each boy could choose the channel every other day. 

David was thrilled. Not only would he get to watch B BAR B, but his older brother and hero, John, would be watching it with him. Unfortunately, after five minutes of B BAR B, John was bored and went out to play in the barn. Suddenly it wasn’t so fun for David to sit by himself and watch TV. What was John doing that was so interesting? David ran out to the barn to play with John! David was so engrossed in playing hide and seek with John in the barn that he didn’t realize he was playing all by himself. John was in the house watching Sky King! Oh well, maybe B BAR B wasn’t so great after all.

 In high school, David made several lifelong friends. Several of them even went into the Army together, including his best friend, Virgil Oliver. After they got out of the Army, Virgil ended up in California. Despite the distance, they remained the closest of friends. Every Sunday David called Virgil. They’d usually talk for about an hour. Then David would call his cousin J.W. in Arkansas and they would talk for an hour. He was a truly loyal friend, and kept up with people he had known throughout his life. Wherever he went in Johnson County, he would run into people who had known him, even in kindergarten 

David had a life of many varied work and leisure interests. Following his stint in the Army, he joined the Leawood Fire Department, built up a house painting business in his off hours and started a family of two lively boys with the beautiful and vivacious Sharon Kay Trammell. He had an interest and enthusiasm for life that led to many adventures and hobbies. 

He and Sharon bought a boat and the family spent several years going to the lake to ski every summer weekend. David took scuba diving lessons and joined a club. He raced a motorcycle with his friends, wearing a German army helmet with a spike on top. 

He took up leatherwork and woodworking, in addition to his master level house painting. You could always recognize a house he had painted, because it had a smooth, flawless quality rarely seen on houses built and painted nowadays. He joined the Masons and the Abdallah Shrine, and spent several years participating in parades as part of the Firewagon Unit.

He was also an enthusiastic and excellent cook, often cooking for his fellow firemen. The only problem was, nobody wanted to be on cleanup crew after David cooked. No matter how much many pots and pans there were, or how much counter space was available, David would somehow manage to completely overrun the kitchen, the dining area and any other empty spaces that might be found. But the meal would be delicious!

When the boys were still young, he somehow convinced Sharon that it would be a good idea to sell their house and move to Las Vegas where he could become a full-time dealer in a casino, even though he had some hearing impairment caused by his stint in the Army. They packed up their boys and took off, only to return to Olathe two weeks later after being told that no children were allowed to live within the city limits of Las Vegas at that time.

When the housing market slowed, he went to hairdressing school and opened up a shop. Always a gentleman, he would tape movies from HBO and Cinemax at home, then play them for his customers—mostly older ladies—who patronized his shop. Sometimes, when their appointments didn’t last long enough to finish the movie, he would just give them the tape to take home and watch. Unfortunately, one time when he did this, he had accidentally taped a “Cinemax After Hours” risqué movie at the end of the movie he had given his customer to take home and watch with her husband. When she returned the next week, she was so flustered, she could hardly bring herself to tell him about it…but she did admit that she and her husband had watched the whole thing.

Later in life, he married Loralee Baker and they moved to the country and started riding horses and traveling to different state parks and horse trails with their friends and neighbors. David rode a big red horse named Gunner and loved to take off at a gallop, leaving the group behind in a cloud of dust. This set the other horses to prancing, rearing and generally behaving badly, but with his poor hearing, David rarely heard the expletives and critical comments hollered in his direction, probably thinking they were cheers of admiration. However, the fact that he was at least 10 years older than the rest of the group and not only could keep up, but was willing to tell funny stories and cook delicious meals tended to excuse his breaking a few rules of trail etiquette.

We in the family call these “David stories,” and we didn’t just tell them, we listened to David tell some of the best ones about funny things he had done or that had happened to him. He had a wonderful sense of humor and a sweet nature — he never poked fun at anyone but himself.

David spent his last several years slowly losing his memory, but he kept his sense of humor and his sweet nature. We will miss him.

Visitation will be held at Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home, 14275 S. Black Bob Road, Olathe 66062 Saturday, March 1, 2025 at (1:30 p.m.) and the Celebration of Life, will take place at (2:30 p.m.) following the visitation. 

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