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Funeral Friday for former area MP, page 1

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') i Funeral Friday for former area MP Funeral service for Lee Grills, former long- time MP for Belleville and much of Hastings County, will be held Fri- day. Grills, 78, died Wednes- day in Belleville General Hospital. A one-t ime dairy farmer and city dairy operator, the folksy, bur- ly Grills dubbed fcimself The Friendly Milkman MP to score repeated .campaign successes-he was defeated only once while at Ottawa-for his Progressive Conser- vative party in area federal politics through the mid-1950s and early 1970s. He entered politics by way of municipal affairs in his native Sidney Township-he was born there, son of Mr. and Mrs, Frank Grills, and for years ran a dairy farni in the township. As Sidney's reeve he served on county council, which elected him its warden in 1952. In 1957 he first went to Ottawa when he scooped the old Hastings South r i d i n g - - i n e l u d i n g Belleville, Trenton and southend Hastings-from the Liberals and added it to the first-time sweep of then prime-minister-to- be John Diefenbaker. Grills lost the riding only once-in 1963 to the Liberals-regained it two years later and won again when the consti- tuency was re-organized as Hastings to include most of the county. He declined to seek his party's nomination for the 1972 election, and was succeeded by Jack Ellis, who now holds the area as Conservative MP for P r i n c e Ed w a r d - Hastings. In his community af- filiations Grills was a life member of the Belleville Shrine Club, a Rotarian and a Mason in Eureka Lodge. His first wife, Bernice, died about 10 years ago and he is immediately survived by his second wife, Grace, and a daughter, Mrs. Betty Jane Ireland. He also leaves a brother, Carmen, RR 5 Belleville, a sister, Mrs. Fred (Hazel) Ash, Peter- borough, and a brother- in-law, Walker Jones, of Peterborough. He was predeceased by a sister, Irene, and a brother. Garnet. The funeral service will be held at Bridge Street United Church, Friday at 11 a.m. with burial in Belleville Cemetery. He is resting at the John R. Bush Funeral Home. <

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