LEKWA, Zilphy I.

LEKWA, LONG, LILLIBRIDGE, HAWKINS, PRESTHOLT

Posted By: Pat Ludeke (email)
Date: 6/13/2013 at 11:12:32

Zilphy I. Lekwa, 84, Mena, Ark., formerly of Clear Lake, died Wednesday, Sept.
28, 1994, at the Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, Texas.

Memorial services were held Sunday, Oct. 2, at the First Christian Church in
Mena, Ark., where she was a member. Burial was in the Clear Lake Cemetery by
her husband Nels Lekwa.

Zilphy was born June 26, 1910, in Mason City, Iowa, the daughter of Frank S.
Long and Wilmie (nee) Lillibridge Long. They moved to Clear Lake from a farm
north of Clear Lake in 1928. She graduated from Clear Lake High School in
1928. Zilphy worked for many years at the Clear Lake Independent Telephone
Company.

On Feb. 4, 1944, she married Nels H. Lekwa, at San Francisco, Calif. After her
husbands release from the Navy they moved to Clear Lake, a few months before
moving to Oregon where their son, Larry, was born in 1946. They moved to Iowa
shortly after where they lived in various places while Nels did carpenter
work. They moved back to Clear Lake in 1947, and for 16 years following were
in the summer cottage business.

They moved to Hereford, Texas in 1975 and to Mena, Ark. in 1979. She made her
home with her son, Larry and his wife, Alta Matzen Lekwa.

Zilphy and her husband were active Christians, beginning the Church of Christ
along with others in 1953, where they were charter members.

She was an avid correspondent with many missionaries of the Christian Churches
and Churches of Christ. She wrote poetry and had a number of poems published.
She received the (Honored Servant Award) in 1987 at the Arkansas Christian
Convention. She taught many children the Bible during the years and had charge
of the Christian Endeavor Youth of the First Christian Church in Clear Lake
for a number of years.

She is survived by her son Larry Lekwa and his wife, Alto Lekwa, Fayetteville,
Ark.; two sisters, Rachel Hawkins, St. Louis, Minn., Ellen Prestholt,
Hanlontown, Iowa; two grandchildren, Andrew Lekwa and his wife, Alana Lekwa,
Fayetteville, Ark., Kelly Lekwa, Hot Springs, Ark.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Nells Lekwa in 1982; two brothers,
Robert A. Long in 1982, and Frank I. Long in 1967.