ROANOKE, Oct. 30 – William Claron Sumner Sr., 94, died on Sunday, October 26, 2008 in Roanoke.

Claron was born and raised on a farm in Fancy Gap. He was the last surviving child of the seven children of Robert Fulton Sumner and Alverta Brendle Sumner. He attended colleges in Bluefield, WV and Richmond, and received his degree in dentistry from the Medical College of Virginia. Claron established a practice in Rocky Mount. While making bank deposits, he met his future wife, Catherine Davis, a teller at the bank.

During World War II, Claron and Catherine moved to Gulf-port, MS, where he served as a United States Army Air Corps dentist. At the end of World War II, Claron and Catherine moved to Roanoke, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was a dentist with the Veterans Administration.

He loved gardening and was an active member of Raleigh Court United Methodist Church.

Claron and Catherine have four children, Bob, Claudine, Bill, and Carey, who live in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Michigan. They have 12 grand-children and six great-grandchildren living in the United States and Canada.

Catherine and her family invite friends to join them at the visitation at Oakey's South Chapel, 4257 Brambleton Avenue in Roanoke on Thursday (today), Oct. 30, from 6 to 8 p.m.

The funeral will be held at 2 p.m., Friday, at Oakey's South Chapel.

Contributions may be made to the charity of your choice.

Please visit and sign the guest book at www.roanoke.com

Local announcement by Puckett Funeral Home, Farmville.