Ralph Benjamin "Ben" Routon ~ Obituary

“Ben” Routon

A graveside service is scheduled at 1 p.m. Monday at Memorial Cemetery for retired civil engineer Ralph Benjamin “Ben” Routon of Paris. Tim Cook will officiate.

Selected as pallbearers are John B. Routon, Carrie Goodman, John Sykes, Randy Watjen and Jim Carl.

Ardell Cole will be an honorary pallbearer.

Visitation will be from 10 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Monday at Ridgeway Funeral Home.

Routon, 86, died Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009, at Henry County Medical Center.

Born April 13, 1923, in Henry, he was the son of Earl and Susilee Lankford Routon, now both deceased.

His wife, Millie Goforth Routon, preceded him in death. They were married on Dec. 30, 1971.

Routon held a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Tennessee. He farmed and operated a ready-mix concrete firm in Paris and worked in Nashville as an engineer for Portland Cement Association before establishing Routon Engineers. He retired from Signal Mountain Cement.

Routon was elected and served two terms in the Tennessee Legislature in the same position that was occupied by his father. Ben Routon held the seat from 1955-61.

During World War II, Routon was missing in action and a prisoner of war. In church, he had last attended Jones Chapel Baptist Church.

He leaves two daughters: Annetta (John) Sykes of Sanford, Fla., and Janice Routon of Paris; and two grandchildren: Allison Mitchell of Birmingham, Ala., and Sue Catherine Mitchell and husband Freddie Blavin of Washington, D.C

Reprinted from THE PARIS POST-INTELLIGENCER
Paris, Tennessee
August 25, 2009 Edition ~ Used by Permission