ROGERS, Joseph Knight

Joseph Knight Rogers. The family of Joseph Knight Rogers wishes to announce that Joe, Valley native and longtime resident of Thatcher passed quietly away February 1, 2004 in Mesa after a short disabling illness. He was 80 years old. Son of Ross Wall and Katy Stailey Rogers and grandson of namesake Joseph Knight and Josephine Wall Rogers, valley pioneers (1879), Joe was a decorated World War II Veteran. He served in the United States Army in the 101st Airborne Division with the rank of a sergeant and was a prisoner of war in Germany and Czechoslovakia for eleven months after the 1944 D-Day invasion. He escaped captivity two times. The first attempt failed and he was treated brutally by his captors and sent to hard labor in Czechoslovakian mines. The second escape was successful, and he managed to reach French forces pushing into Germany. The war ended a few weeks later. After the war, he worked as a Army recruiter, a farm manager in Arizona and at the LDS Church farm in Georgia. He was also in the custom trucking, logging, and heavy equipment business for several firms and with his father and brother Paul. In his later years he was a custodian for the Mesa public schools. He returned home to Thatcher upon retiring in 1987, where he lived quietly while filling several Church callings. Survivors are his wife Marie Kotzman Papes, sister Gloria McHenry, brothers Paul and Dwayne, sons Ross and Earl and stepsons Martin, Charles and Dennis Papes and their families. Visitation and services were at the Gilbert LDS Stake Center. Interment at Thatcher Cemetery. Military Honors will be by the Gila Valley Honor Guard. The many expressions of condolence received are greatly appreciated. Arrangements are under the direction of Morris Safford Funeral Home. Published in the Arizona Republic on 2/4/2004.