J. Ralph Keaton

LEXINGTON – Funeral services for John Ralph Keaton, Sr., 84, will be held at 3:30 p.m. Friday, December 6, 2013 at Ebenezer Pentecostal Holiness Church, 501 Church Street, West Columbia, SC 29172 with entombment in Southland Memorial Gardens Mausoleum. The family will receive friends from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Thursday, December 5, 2013 at Caughman-Harman Funeral Home, West Columbia Chapel.

Mr. Keaton was born July 14, 1929 in Morganton, NC and passed away on Tuesday, December 3, 2013. He was a son of the late Horace C. Keaton and Oma Love Owen Keaton. Mr. Keaton was a member of Ebenezer Pentecostal Holiness Church. He was a certified audiologist and owner of Keaton’s Hearing Aid Service for more than 40 years. He was a champion of the hearing impaired and lobbied for the Hearing Aid Association as well as physically impaired children for numerous years at the South Carolina State House. Ralph was a talented musician who taught hundreds of children to play musical instruments in the church. He was also a gifted photographer who loved to travel. “Papa Ralph” was a loving husband, father and grandfather and he will be missed by all who knew and loved him.

Surviving are his wife, Janet Luce Keaton; daughter, Susan Branham Dickens (Michael); sons, John Ralph Keaton, Jr. (Allison), Willard Lee Keaton (Paulette), Steven Alex Branham (Kathy) and Randall Chris Branham (Megan) and sister, Ida Jean Fisher. He was predeceased by Immogene Keaton and Betty Keaton; sisters, Vera Miles and Clora Evans; brothers, Charles Keaton and Harold Keaton and a granddaughter, Lauren Chandler Dickens.

Memorials may be made to Rally Foundation, 5775 Glenridge Drive, Building B, Suite, 370, Sandy Springs, GA 30328. e-mail: [email protected]