Kaldenberg, Leon 1925-2002

KALDENBERG, LECOCQ, VAN GILST

Posted By: volunteer (email)
Date: 8/21/2005 at 20:06:14

LYNNVILLE - Leon Kaldenberg, 77, of Lynnville, died Sunday, Dec. 29, at Pella Regional Health Center.

His funeral service will be 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Lynnville Friends Church, Pastor Peter Schuler and Pastor Cindy Norman officiating. Burial: Oakwood Cemetery, Pella.

Memorials: Lynnville Friends Church or Hospice of Pella. Visiting hours begin Wednesday morning and continue all day at Van Dyk-Duven Funeral Home in Pella, with family present 6-8 p.m. Wednesday. Memorials: Lynnville Friends Church or Hospice of Pella.

Leon Hubert Kaldenberg was born Nov. 16, 1925, near Monroe, to Hubert and Johanna Lecocq Kaldenberg. His family moved to Sully when he was 10 years old. He attended Dairy Grove Country Grade School, and graduated from Pella High School in 1944. He began working on the family farm, and continued farming his whole life. He was active in the Farmer's Coop and was interested in soil conservation, experimental seed varieties, weed and disease control and other crop and livestock innovations. In the late 1950s he attended Central College in Pella, completing two years. He then attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and graduated in 1964 with a degree in pharmacy. Later he attended Iowa State University in Ames, and earned a degree in life science in 1969. He then studied law at Drake University in Des Moines.

On Oct. 28, 1976, he married Wilma Lucile Van Gilst at the Lynnville Friends Church. They lived in Lynnville. Wilma continued her education while Leon farmed. They attended two World's Fairs, the Republican National Convention in 1979, and President Ronald Reagan's inauguration in Washington, D.C. in 1980. They also toured the Northwest and British Columbia in 1986. Leon semi-retired from farming in 1995.

He was a member of Lynnville Friends Church, and was involved in national and local politics. He served a term on the Jasper County Zoning Committee, the Lynnville-Sully School Board, and was a candidate for Jasper County Board of Supervisors.

He is survived by his wife, Wilma of Lynnville; two stepchildren: Kyle Steenhoek and Lila Turnbull, both of Pella; six step-grandchildren and three step-great-grandchildren; his sister, Emma Louise Dennis of Columbus, Ohio; her children: John Dennis of Columbus, Ohio, and Mary Abbott of Athens, Ga.; three sisters-in-law and spouses: Dorothy Vander Linden of West Des Moines, Tana Mae and Bernie Van Roekel of Pella, and Bernice and Noel Dodge of St. Louis, Mo.; and several other nieces and nephews and their families.

He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother-in-law, Orville Dennis.

The Oskaloosa Herald, December 31, 2002