LESTER, Larry Guy (1935-2022)

LESTER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 4/29/2023 at 16:23:12

Larry Guy Lester
(February 2, 1935 - July 2, 2022)

Larry Guy Lester was born on Feb. 2, 1935, to Ivyl Guy and Helen Frances Lester in Liberty Township in Warren County, Iowa. Larry graduated from Liberty Center High School. After graduation he started farming. Larry loved being a farmer. Its rhythms gave his life shape and definition. He adored the outdoors. He believed the greatest reward of work was in the sheer doing of it.
He met the love of his life, Edna Carolyn Spear, the first day of 7th grade. On March 18, 1954, they married at the Green Plain Methodist Church, near Liberty Center, Iowa, where both their families were members. They rented a house on U.S 65 where they had Lacey and Kerry. In 1957 they moved to the house of Larry’s grandfather, Lath Lester, on 714 acres known as “The Ranch” where they lived for a decade and had Lee Anne and Chris. In 1967 the family moved to the house he and Edna built where they raised their family.
While Edna handled things on the home front, Larry spent many of his years looking after an entire extended family down the gravel road to the south of his home property. Larry looked in on his extended family of parents and grandparents, uncles, and great uncles almost every day to make sure everyone was alright. As they became older, he was often the one taking them to the grocery store, doctor or hospital. Larry was the extended family’s caretaker. He was the first responder. He was the one folks called when things went wrong. And it did not end with his family. He also was a great friend to Edna’s parents and siblings as well. If someone was in need he was there.
To Larry and Edna’s marriage four children were born: Lacey, Kerry, Lee Anne, and Chris. Lacey and his wife Michaela of rural Indianola have three children: Brett (Staci) have a son, Austin; Robyn Marshall (Greg) have two sons, Ethan and Evan; and Brian (Ashley) have one son, Preston. Kerry and his wife Marlene of rural Indianola have one son: Keith (Michelle) have two children, a daughter, Charlene, and a stepdaughter, Mary. Lee Anne and her husband Larry Shiller of Carmel, Indiana, have a son, Aidan. Chris and his wife Sharon of Kansas City, Missouri, have two children: a son, Derek, and a daughter, Caitlin. Larry passed away on Saturday, July 2, 2022, at Des Moines Methodist Hospital of heart failure. Preceding him in death was his wife Edna; his parents, Guy and Helen Lester; and brother, Lynn Lester. Survivors include his children, Lacey, Kerry, Lee Anne, and Chris and their spouses, 7 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. Services for Larry Guy Lester, 87, will be held 10 a.m., Friday, July 8, 2022, at the Farmers Chapel United Methodist Church in Indianola with burial following in the Liberty Center Cemetery, Liberty Center, IA. Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m., Thursday, July 7 at Famers Chapel where family will be present to greet friends from 5 to 8 p.m. Memorials may be given in his name to the Alzheimer’s Association. [This memorial is provided by Overton Funeral Home, 501 West Ashland Ave., Indianola, Iowa, http://www.overtonfuneral.com/]