He served 21 years in the Army Loyal David Pruett was born July 25, 1925, to Alvah L. and Violet Mae (Stafford) Pruett in the Dogwood community of western Douglas County.
He died on Jan. 4, 2008 in the Missouri Veterans Home in Mt. Vernon, Mo. after a long illness.
In 1966 he retired from the Army after serving 21 years in the military. David served in five major battles in the South Pacific during World War II. He also served in the Korean War.
While serving in Austria he met his future wife, Margit, a displaced Hungarian immigrant. They were privileged to have shared 53 years of marriage before her death in 2005.
He retired from Southwest Missouri State University in 1987 where he was supervisor of the maintenance department.
He was preceded in death by his wife Margit; his parents; one brother, Johnny, and an infant brother, Paul; and two sisters, Mary Williams and Alice McCullough.
He is survived by one daughter, Susan Margit Jacobs and her husband, Larry, of Springfield; one son, John David Pruett and his wife, Mary Ellen, of Kansas City; brothers, Bill Pruett and wife, Edna, of Nixa, and Aaron Pruett and wife, Bonnie, of Seymour; two sisters, Nadine Barker and Goldie Bryant, both of Seymour; two grandsons, Dr. Zachary David Jacobs and wife, Melissa, of Columbia, and Nicholas Jacobs, of Springfield; two granddaughters, Demetra Gentry and husband, James, of Wichita, Kan., and Monroe Elizabeth Pruett, of Kansas City.
Visitation was Jan. 7, in Greenlawn South, Springfield. Graveside services with full military honors were held at 11 a.m Jan. 8, in the Missouri Veterans Cemetery, Springfield.
