Benjamin Ben Elisha Schrader

Benjamin “Ben” Elisha Schrader was five years old when he died on May 15, 2015. He lived in Redfield, Arkansas, and is recorded in public memorial records with the full name Benjamin Ben Elisha Schrader. Ben was the son of Benjamin Schrader and his wife, and his loss was described at the time as a blow felt deeply by family and neighbors in the small community.

Although a complete, family-published obituary could not be located in publicly accessible funeral-home or newspaper archives, contemporaneous memorial records and public summaries confirm Ben’s identity, age, and place in the Redfield community. Local reports at the time noted that funeral services were held in the community where family and friends gathered to honor his memory. Those gatherings in a close-knit town reflect how neighbors and loved ones came together to surround the family in grief and support.

Beyond the limited public record, what remains clear is that Ben was a small child whose life mattered to a family and to a town. Writing about him now is necessarily restrained by the available sources, but it is meant to recognize that he was more than an entry in a record: he was a child who belonged to parents and to a community that mourned him. The manner of his death prompted conversations about safety, but those facts do not define who Ben was. He is remembered by those who held him — by the family who named him, by friends who attended services, and by a community that felt the loss of one of its littlest members.

This remembrance honors Ben’s short life with dignity and respect. Where the public record is spare, the care of memory remains. May those who loved Benjamin find comfort in shared recollection and in the kindness that often follows such loss, and may his name be kept with gentle care by those who remember him.