Yates, Leona 1912-1997

YATES, KISTING, BYERS

Posted By: Linda Ziemann (email)
Date: 5/30/2008 at 19:51:06

FUNERAL TUESDAY FOR LONGTIME LE MARS RESIDENT

Leona Yates, 84, of LeMars, died Friday, March 21, 1997, at Plymouth Manor Care Center in LeMars.

Mrs. Yates, the former Leona Elsie Kisting, was born Aug. 10, 1912, in rural Moville, the daughter of Dominick and Martha (Byers) Kisting. She was raised in the Moville-Lawton area, and lived with her Grandmother Byers while attending school in Moville. On Dec. 31, 1935, she married Clarence Yates at Elk Point, S.D. They farmed near Westfield for a time and then moved to Washington township near LeMars where they farmed for several years. They moved to LeMars in the late 1950’s where she cooked at the Club Café and the DX Café. She then operated and owned the Frontier Café for several years.

Later she worked at the Plymouth County Home as a dietician and the couple did custodial work at the LeMars Sentinel. Mr. Yates died in 1980. She retired in 1979 and had been a resident of Plymouth Manor Care Center since November 1996.

She was a member of St. John's Lutheran Church ELCA and the American Legion Auxiliary.

Survivors include five daughters and their husbands, Darlene and Selmer Bergerson of Indianapolis, Ind., Arlene and Dale Klemme of Akron, Marlene and Emmett Henry of Kingsley, Eilene and Jerry Rolling of LeMars, and Charlene and Dick Williams of Seney; 25 grandchildren; 43 great-grandchildren; six great great-grandchildren; two sisters, Alice Haggin of Moville, and Gladys and her husband, Don Collins of Marcus; one brother, Raymond Kisting of Washington D.C.

She was preceded in death by her parents; one brother, Charles; one sister, Lottie Bowers and two sons-in-law, Gerald “Corky” Hagan and Dennis Bjork.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. John's Lutheran Church ELCA in LeMars with the Rev. David Kramer officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Cemetery in LeMars. Visitation will be after 2 p.m. today (Monday) with a prayer service at 7 p.m. at the Mauer-Johnson Funeral Home in LeMars.

~Source: LeMars Daily Sentinel, Monday, March 24, 1997