Curtis Lonnie Gemmil

Prague resident, Curtis Gemmil, age 81, passed away Thursday, August 23, 2007. Curtis had been cared for at Parkland Manor for the past two and a half years. Curtis was born July 29, 1926, in Sweet Springs, Missouri, to William and Mona Alma Gemmil. He moved to California in 1941 where he lived with his mother and step-father, Orville Harper, in San Diego, California. He graduated from San Diego High School where he went through the R.O.T.C. program. As a teen, he earned a black belt in Judo. He attended UCLA Delta Sigma Phi fraternity for two years, and then joined the Navy working in the Guided Missile Program and teaching Judo. He married Marie Henry, whom he met in Chicago, Illinois, while stationed at Great Lakes Naval Base, and they were married February 7, 1948. After his military service, he received his undergraduate degree and ultimately obtained his J.D. from Southwestern Law School, graduating cum laude, in 1953. He took and passed the California State Bar, and successfully practiced law until 1995 in Whittier, California. Curtis and his wife, Marie, moved to Prague, Oklahoma in October 2004. He was preceded in death by his mother, Mona Alma Harper, his father, Walter Marian Gemmil, and his step-father, Orville Harper. He is survived by his wife, Marie Gemmil of Prague and his daughter, Tonya Mills and her husband, R.C. Mills of Prague; granddaughter, Tasha Mills of Prague; son Curtis Gemmil, II, and his wife, Dolores, and granddaughter Madison Gemmil of Whittier, California; and daughter Tera Leigh of Falmouth, Maine. He is also survived by his brother-in-law, Hal Henry of Shawnee, Oklahoma, who worked for Curtis as his law firm?s Chief Investigator for over 25 years.