Eugene "Duke" Rucker, 85, of LaPorte, Indiana, died at 6:10 a.m. on Thursday, August 17, 2006 at Fountainview Terrace Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, August 21, at Cutler Funeral Home. A time of visitation with the family will be held on Monday from 10:00 a.m. until the time of the service. Burial will be in Pine Lake Cemetery where full military honors will be conducted.
Duke was born February 6, 1921, in Chicago, Illinois to the late Charles & Margaret (Bohney) Rucker. On March 25, 1943, at the Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY, he married Rosemary Chor, who survives.
Survivors also include son Gregory Rucker of Aiken, SC; daughter Dr. Judith (Dr. David) Sorg of Fort Wayne, IN; grandchildren Phillip Rucker and Amy Mills Rucker; and numerous nieces and nephews and their children, cousins and friends.
Brothers Philip, John, Charles, Vernon, and Ralph and sisters Violet Sonneman and Margaret Rucker preceded him in death.
Duke had retired as a sheet metal worker.
He loved to dance, golf, fish and play cards. He served in the U.S. Navy during WW II serving as a torpedoman 1st class aboard the destroyers Cowie, Dale and Evans in E.T.O. and the Pacific.