Eric Nathan Bell

Eric Nathan Bell was born March 11, 1960, in Mountain Grove, Missouri, and passed away on April 27, 2022, in Springfield, Missouri. He was 62 years, 1 month, and 16 days of age.

He grew up as the youngest of the boys and had many stories to tell. He shared that his brothers would put him in the treetops, would bend the branch over, and then let him fly up about 30 foot. Then he would get back up in tree, but this time he would hold on. He also shared they would put him on a car hood and push him down a sawdust pile. He said he got blamed for everything. Eric loved to take things apart and put them back together. He had a mini bike that only he could ride because his brothers couldn’t keep it going. He made a gasket out of an inner tube to fix it.

Eric went to Dora School until 8th grade and then moved to Illinois. He married his first wife and helped raise her two children, Julie and Ken. He later married Alice and helped raise her children, Bradley, Kory, Joshua, and Rachel. Eric and Alice then adopted Riley and Garrett. He loved his children and grandchildren very much.

He loved classic cars, fishing and boating, and playing baseball in the back yard with the kids. He had coffee with his friends every morning at 5:00 a.m., and they would solve the world’s problems. He was always a kid at heart. He loved to joke and tease others, but all out of good intent. He could be so funny and will be truly missed by all his friends and family.

Besides his parents, Eric was preceded in death by his sons, Bradley Koch and Kory Koch, and granddaughter, Eleanor Armstrong.

He is survived by his wife, Alice Bell of Mountain Grove, Missouri, sons, Kenneth Adkins of Ashflat, Arkansas, Joshua Armstrong of Mountain Grove, Missouri, Riley Bell of Mountain Grove, Missouri, and Garrett Bell of Mountain Grove, Missouri, daughters, Julie Swindle of Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Rachel Armstrong of Brookland, Arkansas, and several grandchildren who miss him.