James Edward "Junior" Fitzgerald, 87, North Las Vegas, NV, formerly of Topeka, KS, died Sunday, March 11, 2012, at a Las Vegas hospice house.

He was born on Feb. 28, 1925, at Mayetta, KS, the son of James and Edna Oelke Fitzgerald Sr. He graduated from Mayetta High School.

Junior had retired as a power plant operator at Tecumseh, KS, for Kansas Power & Light. He was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 304. He had also been a volunteer at St. Francis Hospital in Topeka. He was a member of St. John Neumann Catholic Church at Las Vegas.

He married Maria Johanna Empt in Feb. 1952, at Topeka. She died on Feb. 10, 1995. He was also preceded in death by two brothers, Bill Fitzgerald and Bob Fitzgerald, and by two sisters, Bernice Hayes and Betty Jo Brooks.

Survivors include his son Charles E. and his wife, Cheri Fitzgerald, North Las Vegas, NV, and four granddaughters, Amy D. Conway, Megan L. Irons, and Isabella J. Conway, all of Lawrence, KS, and Melissa S. Tacke, Schenectady, N.Y.

Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10:00 a.m. Friday, March 16, 2012 at St. Dominic Catholic Church in Holton. Burial will follow at Mt. Calvary Cemetery. A Rosary followed by a visitation will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Mercer Funeral Home in Holton. Memorials may be made to the Huntington's Disease Foundation c/o Mercer Funeral Home, PO Box 270, Holton, KS 66436.