Obituary from Monon News, 7/3/1952, pg. 1, w/photo:

Vernon Nowels, Retired Merchant, Dies in Arizona

Body of Former Store Owner Taken to Rensselaer

Vernon Nowels, retired Monon ten cent store owner, died Monday night of last week at the Mesa (Ariz) hospital where he had been a patient for four days.

Born Dec. 25, 1873, the son of William Riley and Emily Ann (Rock) Nowels, the deceased spent his early life in Rensselaer. He was married there on Dec. 30, 1901, to Rosetta Smith and the couple had one son, Harold, who died a few years after he had finished his schooling at the University of Michigan.

Mr. Nowels was employed as a clerk in the B F Forsythe and the Ellis & Murray department stores in Rensselaer. Later he operated a restaurant in the building now occupied by the Davisson & Lee store, selling out to become Postmaster of Rensselaer. After several years in capacity he opened a variety store in Rensselaer, later moving to Monon to opern a variety store which he sold to Bob Pior when his health failed.

About five years ago Mr. and Mrs. Nowels moved to Mesa, Ariz., for his health, purchasing a home there and making occasional trips back to Rensselaer and Monon. On his last trip here he became ill and was in the Rensselaer hospital for a few days suffering from a nose hemorrhage. When he was able to travel again he and his wife retruned to Arizona. A few weeks before his death he became ill with a blood disease which caused his death.

Surviving with the wife are three sisters: Mrs. A.D. Thompson of Rensselaer, Mrs. Floyd Wheeler of Flora and Mrs. Lawson Meyer of Gary; and a brother Gaylord of Longmont, Colorado.

The body was returned to Rensselaer where services were held Saturday afternoon at the Jackson funeral home iwth the Masonic lodge in charge. Burial was in the Weston cemetery.

Mrs. Nowels will remain in Rensselaer for a while and then return to Arizona. She explained to Monon friends that she will probably sell the home in Mesa nad return to Rensselaer for permanent residence.