Donald Raymond Mathia, 74, longtime Osawatomie resident and retired businessman, died Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002, at the Life Care Center in Osawatomie.

Shorty, as he was more commonly known, was born May 2, 1927, in Edgerton, the youngest of the two children of Ivil LeRoy and Mildred Bernice Seckinger Mathia. The family moved to Osawatomie when he was a child. He attended the Osawatomie schools, graduating with the Class of 1944.

He entered the military in July 1945 and served in the U.S. Army as a Tech. 5 with the 52nd Signal Battalion in the Pacific Theater.

Liquor became legal in 1949 in Kansas and he was one of the group that was issued the original liquor license. When he sold his store in 1999, he was the last of that group to retire. Besides the Mathia Retail Liquor Store, he also built a car wash north of the store. He sold the business in 1979. He also did a little farming.

He was married Sept. 14, 1957, to Barbara Ann Webb in Topeka. They lived in Osawatomie and had three children.

Mr. Mathia was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of Osawatomie and was a former member of the American Legion of Osawatomie.

Surviving are his wife, Barbara Mathia of the home; two sons, Scott Mathia of Wichita and Dan Mathia of Louisburg; a daughter, Linda Hood of Broken Arrow, Okla.; a sister, Hazel Louise Russell of Osawatomie; four grandchildren; and two step-grandchildren.

Services were today (Monday) at Eddy-Birchard Funeral Home in Osawatomie. Burial was in the Antioch Cemetery.

Memorials have been established in his name to the Elks Scholarship Fund.