Veteran GOP Leader W.D. Cruce Dies

El Dorado Springs (Special) – Veteran Missouri Republican leader W.D. "Bill" Cruce die today in Cedar County Memorial Hospital after suffering an apparent heart attack.

Cruce, 68, a former state representative, minority floor leader in the Missouri House and GOP candidate for governor in 1952, suffered a heart attack July 19 and had been hospitalized since then. He died about 2:30 a.m.

A native of Fort Scott, Kan., Cruce attended El Dorado Springs public schools and was graduated from the School of Pharmacy of Kansas City University.

A retired retail druggist, Cruce was supervisor of the Division of Food and Drugs of the State Board of Health from 1941 to 1946. He was elected to the Missouri House in 1946 and served three terms, two of them as Republican floor leader.

Later Cruce was executive secretary of the Republican state committee and ran for governor in 1952, when former House Speaker Howard Elliott of St. Louis County won the nomination. Cruce was chief clerk of the House in 1953-54.

Cruce was past president of the El Dorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and school board.

In recent years the former politician had lived in Jefferson City.

Surviving are his wife Hortense; a son, Nathaniel H., of Bristow, Okla.,; a sister, Mrs. Elsie Smith, El Dorado Springs; a brother, Jake Williams, El Dorado Springs; and two grandchildren.

Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Isbell-Carothers Chapel here with burial in El Dorado Springs Cemetery.

Springfield Leader and Press (Springfield, Missouri 29 Jul 1972, Sat

Veteran GOP Leader W.D. Cruce Dies

El Dorado Springs (Special) – Veteran Missouri Republican leader W.D. "Bill" Cruce die today in Cedar County Memorial Hospital after suffering an apparent heart attack.

Cruce, 68, a former state representative, minority floor leader in the Missouri House and GOP candidate for governor in 1952, suffered a heart attack July 19 and had been hospitalized since then. He died about 2:30 a.m.

A native of Fort Scott, Kan., Cruce attended El Dorado Springs public schools and was graduated from the School of Pharmacy of Kansas City University.

A retired retail druggist, Cruce was supervisor of the Division of Food and Drugs of the State Board of Health from 1941 to 1946. He was elected to the Missouri House in 1946 and served three terms, two of them as Republican floor leader.

Later Cruce was executive secretary of the Republican state committee and ran for governor in 1952, when former House Speaker Howard Elliott of St. Louis County won the nomination. Cruce was chief clerk of the House in 1953-54.

Cruce was past president of the El Dorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and school board.

In recent years the former politician had lived in Jefferson City.

Surviving are his wife Hortense; a son, Nathaniel H., of Bristow, Okla.,; a sister, Mrs. Elsie Smith, El Dorado Springs; a brother, Jake Williams, El Dorado Springs; and two grandchildren.

Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Isbell-Carothers Chapel here with burial in El Dorado Springs Cemetery.

Springfield Leader and Press (Springfield, Missouri 29 Jul 1972, Sat