{"id":44721,"date":"2026-08-21T11:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=44721"},"modified":"2026-08-21T11:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:20:14","slug":"ronald-gene-ragsdale-86-of-st-elmo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/44721-ronald-gene-ragsdale-86-of-st-elmo\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronald Gene Ragsdale (86) of St. Elmo"},"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>Ronald Gene Ragsdale, age 86, of St. Elmo, Illinois, passed away in his home on Tuesday, August 18, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Graveside service will be held at 2:00 p.m. August 30, 2026, Fairview Church Cemetery, 2073 N 1800 St Brownstown IL. Pastor Dan Laack will be officiating. In lieu of flowers or food, memorials may be made to Fairview Cemetery, c\/o Laura Ann Feezel, 370 W. Cumberland, Brownstown, IL, 62418, or donor\u2019s choice. Online condolences may be left at www.pagelfuneralhome.com.<\/p>\n<p>Ronald was born July 27, 1940 at the family home on Walnut St. in St. Elmo, Illinois, the son of James Clifton Ragsdale and Connie Leigh (Haley) Ragsdale. He was the 8th of 9 children. He married Karel Lee Bail on September 13, 1960, in the Fairview United Methodist Church, Avena, Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>Ron was a man of many talents and pursuits. He operated as a mechanic and auto body specialist at his Ragsdale\u2019s Body Shop, then operated Ragsdale\u2019s Photography Studio as a photographer in his hometown of St. Elmo. At various times, he was a coroner\u2019s photographer, acting coroner, and undertaker\u2019s assistant. He served as a board member of the Fayette County Hospital, and had an insurance sales office in Effingham, Illinois. Ron had a passion for American muscle cars, expertly restoring a classic \u201970 Shelby Mustang and a \u201969 Boss 429. In his later years, he cruised in a red Shelby Cobra replica, passing out snakebite kits and dollar bowties. He developed his musical ear later in life, playing hammered dulcimer with the Prairie Land Pickers. When he wasn\u2019t pursuing his own interests, he was supporting his wife Karel\u2019s horse farm operation as carpenter and mechanic.<\/p>\n<p>He is survived by his son, Brent Ronald (Teresa) Ragsdale, St. Elmo, Illinois; daughter, Lisette Rene\u2019 (Mark) Ehrat, Shobonier, Illinois; sister, Barbara Sue Murphy, Ocala, Florida; grandchildren, Whitney (Mike) Patton, Lake Sara, Illinois, Johanna (Jeremy) Hassebrock, Edgewood, Illinois, Tara (Jimmie) Caraway, St. Elmo, Illinois, Braden (Evelyn) Ehrat, Monticello, Illinois, many great-grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.<\/p>\n<p>He was preceded in death by his parents, wife, brothers, Marvin, Robert \u201cBob\u201d, and James Donald \u201cJD\u201d, sisters, Betty King, Okema Rhodes, Norma June Weaver, and Patricia Ann Storm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ronald Gene Ragsdale, age 86, of St. Elmo, Illinois, passed away in his home on Tuesday, August 18, 2026. Graveside service will be held at 2:00 p.m. August 30, 2026, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":44685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44721","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 v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ronald Gene Ragsdale (86) of St. Elmo - 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\/44721-ronald-gene-ragsdale-86-of-st-elmo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ronald Gene Ragsdale (86) of St. Elmo - 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