Merchant

Joseph Edward Merchant, 80, of Butler passed away at 6:33 p.m. Wednesday at the Good Samaritan Hospice Unit at Concordia.

He was born June 30, 1931, in Petrolia to the late George Merchant and Margaret Ace Merchant Frineck.

Mr. Merchant worked for 43 years, retiring in 1993, at the Witco Chemical Co., Petrolia, in the storeroom. He was a member of the Parker City-Allegheny Valley Lodge F&AM 521 as a 32nd degree mason and a member of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Valley of New Castle. He was a Protestant.

Mr. Merchant is survived by his wife, Sandra Barger Merchant, who he married March 28, 1951; one daughter, Barbara (Ritenour) Merchant of Butler; one granddaughter, Renea Holt and her husband, John, of Butler; three great-grandchildren, Taylor, Adam and Brandon Holt; and two sisters, Jean Scott of Emlenton and Betty Fair and her husband, James, of Chicora.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one great-grandson, Tyler Holt; two sisters, Martha Shoup and Shirley Craig; and one brother, George Merchant II.

<B>MERCHANT</B> — Friends of Joseph Edward Merchant, who passed away on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012, will be received from 1 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. on Sunday at the <B>Thompson-Miller Funeral Home</B>, 124 E. North St., Butler. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. on Monday at the New Testament Baptist Church, 437 N. Duffy Road, Butler, with the Rev. Steve Fisher, the church pastor, officiating. Burial will take place in the Bear Creek Cemetery, Petrolia.Online condolences can be given at www.thompson-miller.com.