{"id":26220,"date":"2025-12-29T16:29:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T22:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=26220"},"modified":"2025-12-29T16:30:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T22:30:47","slug":"merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/","title":{"rendered":"Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>Merton Lee Scroggins, 66, passed away Saturday December 27, 2025, at his home in Farina, Illinois, surrounded by his family.<\/p>\n<p>Visitation will be held on Friday, January 2, 2026 from 10:00a.m. to 12:00p.m. at Pagel Funeral Home, Edgewood, IL with graveside services being held immediately following at Keens Chapel Cemetery, rural Farina, IL. Pastor Sam Hester will be officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Pagel Funeral Home to offset funeral costs or to the donor\u2019s choice. Online condolences may be expressed at www.pagelfuneralhome.com.<\/p>\n<p>Mert was born May 2, 1959, in Decatur, IL, the son of Merton and Virginia Lee and raised by Edward and Wanda Tipsword. Mert was involved in The Dinner Club and enjoyed camping, fishing, and he cherished time he spent with family and friends. Mert worked at the Masonic home and S&amp;S RVs.<\/p>\n<p>Mert is survived by his sons: Jeremy Scroggins (wife, Keri) of Flora, IL, Blake Scroggins of Sullivan, IL and daughter: Bridget Scroggins (Shane Williams) of Texico, IL; 5 grandchildren: Alyssa Scroggins of Japan, Payton and Justice Scroggins of Flora, IL, and Kallum and Ryker Scroggins of Neoga, IL.; Brother, David Tipsword of Mattoon IL., and numerous nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n<p>Mert was preceded by his parents: Merton and Virginia Lee, Edward and Wanda Tipsword; his partner in life, Bryan Jones; brother Don \u201cDewey\u201d Morris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merton died on Saturday, December 27<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":26223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obits"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-29T22:29:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-29T22:30:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Merton-Scroggins-pic.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"180\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"180\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Greg Sapp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Greg Sapp\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Greg Sapp\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1\"},\"headline\":\"Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-29T22:29:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-29T22:30:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":228,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Merton-Scroggins-pic.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Obituaries\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/\",\"name\":\"Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Merton-Scroggins-pic.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-29T22:29:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-29T22:30:47+00:00\",\"description\":\"Effingham's News and Sports Leader\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Merton-Scroggins-pic.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Merton-Scroggins-pic.jpg\",\"width\":180,\"height\":180},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/premier-logo-v1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/premier-logo-v1.png\",\"width\":272,\"height\":69,\"caption\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1\",\"name\":\"Greg Sapp\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/greg_sapp\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","og_description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/","og_site_name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","article_published_time":"2025-12-29T22:29:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-29T22:30:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":180,"height":180,"url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Merton-Scroggins-pic.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Greg Sapp","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Greg Sapp","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/"},"author":{"name":"Greg Sapp","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1"},"headline":"Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina","datePublished":"2025-12-29T22:29:31+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-29T22:30:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/"},"wordCount":228,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Merton-Scroggins-pic.jpg","articleSection":["Obituaries"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/","name":"Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Merton-Scroggins-pic.jpg","datePublished":"2025-12-29T22:29:31+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-29T22:30:47+00:00","description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Merton-Scroggins-pic.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Merton-Scroggins-pic.jpg","width":180,"height":180},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/26220-merton-lee-scroggins-66-of-farina\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Merton Lee Scroggins (66) of Farina"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/","name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/premier-logo-v1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/premier-logo-v1.png","width":272,"height":69,"caption":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1","name":"Greg Sapp","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/author\/greg_sapp\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Greg Sapp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26220"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26226,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26220\/revisions\/26226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}