Burial: Lyons Cemetery, Lyons, NE

Findagrave Memorial: 12950689

No newspaper name

Lora Blankenbeckler, 84

Lora Blankenbeckler, 84, Lyons, died Thursday, May 25 at Integrated Health Services in Lyons. She was a native of Decatur.

Funeral services were held at the New Life Assembly of God church in Lyons, Pastor Radny Brotzman, officiated in the absence of the church’s regular pastor.

Pall bearers were Jon Bacon, Harold Bacon, Ron Anderson, Perry Preston, Mark Wallerstedt and Mark Pearson. Honorary bearers were Carl Porter, Martin Long, Floyd and Alyce Benson, Duane and Bev Phillips, Mary Lee and Levon Slaughter.

Interment was in the Lyons Cemetery following graveside rites. Piper Funeral Home, Lyons, was in charge of arrangements.

Lora was born August 8, 1915 in Decatur to Edgar and Grace (Bradley) Rouse. She attended Elm Creek School, Decatur Public School and graduated from Lyons High School in 1933.

She married Kenneth Blankenbeckler, January 31, 1935, in Blair. Three children were born to this union. The couple farmed in the Tekamah, Lyons, and Rosalie area until Kenneth’s death in 1966 on the farm near Rosalie.

Lora taught school in Thurston, Burt, Nance and Holt counties. In 1973, she received a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from Dana College, Blair. She retired from teaching in 1979 after some 20 years. She loved to watch her pupils’ facial expressions once they solved a hard problem in what was being taught, and then she knew she had accomplished her job.

She was a member of the Lyons VFW Auxiliary and past district president of the VFW Auxiliary. She also was a Silver Haired Senator for eight years in an organization that is a voice for the elderly. She was a member of the New Life Assembly of God Church, Lyons. She was baptized in 1935 at Silver Creek Baptist Church near Tekamah.

Lora is survived by her children, Lois VanBoening and her husband, Tim, Hastings; Charles Blankenbeckler and his wife, Wanda, of Blair; R.W. Blankenbeckler and his wife, Diane, Millington, TN. She is also survived by grandchildren, Chuck Blankenbeckler, Omaha; Eric Blankenbeckler, Escondido, CA; Scott and Todd Blankenbeckler, Memphis, TN; Christopher and Andrea VanBoening, Hastings; and great-grandchildren, Kelly and Kody Blankenbeckler, Escondido, CA. Lora is also survived by a sister, Doris James and her husband, Cecil, Barstow, CA; and sisters-in-law, Neva Rouse, Fremont, and Leona Rouse, Craig.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~