MESSER, Leonard Allen: 1921-1996

MESSER, WILLICH, HILL, THOMSON, MCLAUGHLIN, RICHARDS, SAMUELSON, DOLLINS, STANDLEY

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 4/3/2014 at 03:41:49

The Fairfield Ledger
Friday, March 29, 1996

Leonard A. Messer

NEW SHARON - Leonard A. Messer, 74, of New Sharon, former area resident, died of cancer Tuesday, March, 26, 1996, at the New Sharon Care Center.

The service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at New Sharon Presbyterian Church, with the Rev. Hans Cornelder officiating. Burial, with military honors by American Legion Coffin-Miller Post 446 of New Sharon, will be in Friends Cemetery at New Sharon. Visitation is open at Harden Funeral Home in New Sharon, with the family present from 7 to 8:30 tonight. A memorial has been established to Hospice of Mahaska County.

Messer was born April 6, 1921, in Lockridge, the son of John and Stella Mae Hill Messer. He graduated from Fairfield High School in 1939. On Dec. 28, 1945, he married Carol Thomson at the Hedrick Presbyterian Church. He graduated from William Penn College in 1950 and earned a master's degree in education from the University of Iowa. He taught school in Winfield, New Sharon, where he was assistant superintendent fro 1952 to 1960, at Chadwick, Ill., Alburnett, Shellsburg and Farm Valley/Menlo. He was an Army veteran of World War II, having served in Europe and North Africa. He was a member of New Sharon Presbyterian Church, where he was an elder, Coffin-Miller Post 446 of the American Legion, a past member of the Lions Club and former president of the Mahaska Teachers Association.

Surviving are his wife of New Sharon; two sons, Lawrence of Winterset, Mark of Mason City; two daughters, Kathleen McLaughlin of Scottsdale, Ariz., Lorraine Richards of Oskaloosa; nine grandchildren; four sisters, Viola Samuelson and Grace Samuelson, both of Fairfield, Gladys Willich of Buffalo, Iowa and Esther Dollins of Davenport. He was preceded in death by his parents; a son, Brent; three brothers, Glen, Clarence and Everett; and a sister, Bessie Standley.

(Transcribed for genealogy purposes only. I am of no relation.)