Leora Caroline Christensen was born on April 4, 1921, in Deer Creek Township, Webster County, near Fort Dodge, Iowa. The oldest daughter of Alfred and Marie Christensen, she was baptized on May 15, 1921, at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. Leora was confirmed on September 2, 1934, at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church near Sully. In 1921, her family moved to a farm in the Pella area where she attended Sandridge School until the sixth grade and then Sheesley School in Mahaska County for seventh and eighth grade. The family moved to a farm near Kellogg in 1936 and then to Tracy in 1942.

Leora married Frank Beyer at her parents' home on January 14, 1942, under a pink and white arch with silver bells. To this union three children were born: Joyce, Carolyn, and Verlyn.

Frank and Leora farmed for many years near Otley, Galesburg, and Sully before finally moving to a farm between Sully and Reasnor in 1949. In 1979 they moved to their home in Sully.

Leora was devoted to her husband and to her children. She was a member of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, where she was actively involved with Evangelical Lutheran Church Women, church socials, Sunday School, and Vacation Bible School. She loved to crochet, sew, quilt, work puzzles, and play cards with her family and neighbors. During the summer months she kept busy canning, baking, and preparing coffee and lunch for men working on the farm.

Leora went to her heavenly home on Saturday, August 31, 2013, in Osage Beach, Missouri, at the age of ninety-two.

She was preceded in death by her father, Alfred Christensen; her mother, Hope Marie Christensen; her sister, Anna Christensen; and her beloved husband, Frank Beyer.

Those left to cherish her memory are her two daughters, Joyce Lauterbach of Columbia, South Carolina, and Carolyn Schnell of San Diego, California; her son, Verlyn Beyer of Eldon, Missouri; grandchildren, Arianne Robinson, Michael Schnell, Jan Rippentrop, and Matthew Schnell; great-grandchildren, Tessera Rippentrop, Ana Rippentrop, and Jonathan Schnell; sister, Christina Shilling; and brothers Alfred Jr. Christensen and Marinus Christensen.

FUNERAL SERVICES

10:00 A.M., Friday, September 6, 2013
St. Andrew's Lutheran Church
Sully, Iowa

VISITATION

Beginning at Noon, Thursday, September 5, 2013
Family present 5:00-7:00 P.M.
Sully Garden Chapel Funeral Home
Sully, Iowa

Memorials

St. Andrew's Lutheran Church
American Parkinson Disease Association - Iowa Chapter

INTERMENT

St. Andrew's Cemetery
Sully, Iowa

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