LaVerne Lahr Obituary

FOOSLAND - LaVerne (Bossingham) Lahr passed away on Thursday (Jan. 16, 2025) at 7:52 p.m. at the ARC in El Paso.

Born on Nov. 18, 1918, LaVerne grew up in Stanford, the daughter of Elmo and Elmira (Swope) Bossingham. She graduated from Stanford High School in 1936 and married Vernal Lahr at the Stanford Christian Church on Feb. 12, 1939. They made their home in rural Minier for a year, then the couple moved to rural Bellflower to farm. A few years later, they moved to a farm northeast of Foosland. Vernal and LaVerne were married for 59 years, until his death in 1998.

LaVerne is survived by her three children, Donald (Aneita) Lahr of Gibson City, Elaine Lahr Cunningham of Minonk and Terry Lahr Wingate of Omaha, Neb. LaVerne also has one surviving sister, Lorene Anderson of Normal. Her grandchildren are Josh (Kara) Matthews, Jeff (Daniele) Lahr, Sean (Christine) Cunningham, Katelyn Wingate and Jacob (Lauren) Wingate. Her great-grandchildren are Caleb Matthews, Hannah (Lane) Matthews Stanford, Joy Matthews, Luke (Kalynn) Matthews, Josiah Matthews and Micah Matthews, Lilly and Sawyer Lahr and Brayden and Kyra Cunningham.

LaVerne was preceded in death by her husband, Vernal Lahr; brother, Edwin Bossingham; and sister Esther Bossingham Johnson.

LaVerne devoted herself to her family and the life of a farm wife. She maintained large vegetable gardens and canned or froze all of the produce. LaVerne helped with the animals - chickens, pigs/hogs, sheep, beef cattle, milking cows and raising horses. She was an excellent cook and baker, well-known for her cookies and desserts and especially her pies. She cooked and baked constantly, serving the usual three meals per day plus extra snacks and sandwiches during planting and harvest seasons. She sewed clothing for the family and was a 4-H leader for many years. She taught Sunday school and Bible school at the Methodist Church in Foosland and served on many church committees and volunteered when needed. LaVerne and Vernal retired and moved to Gibson City. After the death of her husband, she continued to live in Gibson City for several years before moving to Evergreen Village in Bloomington. For the last two years, she resided at the ARC Nursing Home in El Paso.

LaVerne celebrated her 106th birthday in November and enjoyed reminiscing about all of the things she experienced in her 100-plus years. She lived through TWO pandemics - the Spanish Flu in 1918 and COVID-19 in 2020! She was a youngster in the 1920s, walking or traveling in a horse-drawn wagon to school. As a teenager in the Great Depression, she and her family had to "make do" with very little. She was a young wife and mother during World War II, and she experienced rationing of necessities like baby food, groceries, clothing, gasoline and tires. The 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were the years that she had teenagers at home, observing all of the music, fashion and societal changes of those years. By the 1980s and 1990s, she was able to enjoy being a grandmother, and once again, she was cooking all her favorite recipes for a new generation!

Her funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, at Rosenbaum Funeral Home, Gibson City, with visitation from 10 to 11 a.m. prior to the service. Graveside services will follow at Drummer Township Cemetery, Gibson City.

Memorials may be made to the McLean County Genealogical Society.