Leonard Reher obituary

Below find the obituary of Leonard Reher as copied from the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on WyomingNews.com.


Leonard L. Reher

1921-2011

Leonard Louis Reher, 90, of Cheyenne died Sept. 7, 2011 at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.

Leonard was born in Kimball, Neb., on March 21, 1921, the son of Arthur and Theresa (Buettner) Reher. He attended school in Bushnell, Neb., and graduated in 1939.

Leonard enlisted in the Marine Corps on Nov. 16, 1942, and served in the Pacific during World War II. He was honorably discharged on Nov. 30, 1945.

He was married to Ilene Arnold on Sept. 19, 1946. They made their home on the farm north of Pine Bluffs, in the Lindburg area. Leonard retired from farming in 1986 and moved to Pine Bluffs.

Survivors include his wife, Ilene, of 64 years; children, Sandy (Don) Wisroth and Mike (Pat) Reher, both of Pine Bluffs, Sue (Lin) Vann of Cheyenne and Monty (Kari) of Boise, Idaho; 14 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, brothers, Alfred, Virgil, Leland, Harold and Gene; and a sister, Catherine Colbert.

Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. on Monday, September 12, 2011, at the Pine Bluffs United Methodist Church with the Rev. Gail Graves and the Rev. Dale Lovett officiating. Inurnment will be in the Pine Bluffs Cemetery. There will be no visitation.

Memorials have been established to the Pine Bluffs Ambulance or the Pine Bluffs United Methodist Church. The services have been entrusted to the Cantrell Funeral Home of Kimball.

Note: My personal records and copies in my possession of records made by Cathryn Reher Colbert show Leonard was born in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming... I am not sure which place of birth is actually correct.

I can remember many visits to Grand Island by Leonard and Ilene as they stayed with or visited my folks a lot. However, I have no real personal memories of them to share other than just the overall feeling that they were always very nice and everyone had a good time while they were here visiting.

I asked my Mother (Juleen Reher, age 92) for some memories of Leonard to share in the blog. Her comment was, "my brain is out of memories." But then she did come up with a couple although she really didn't want me to share them. I told her that I would love to hear memories like them, if they were stories about my father, grandfather or great-grandfather. It is the stories that make the people more real to us. So here are Mother's little memories.

Mother said that Leonard was always jolly, he was fun to be around and fairly ornery. The first memory took place around 1947. We lived in a very small house on Louise Street in Grand Island and Leonard and Ilene stayed with us when they were visiting. Having no extra bedroom, my father, Barney, sectioned off a small portion of the basement into a room with some cheap paneling. Leonard accidentally kicked a hole in it while he & Ilene were having "fun" that night.

Mother's second memory took place around 1956, we had just gotten a new car, a blue Pontiac. Leonard laid a firecracker under the hood on the engine. When Daddy started the car later so they all could go out dancing, as soon as the engine heated enough it lit the firecracker, which exploded and everyone was shocked or scared as planned. Not planned was the little dent it left in the hood of the car. Leonard felt really bad about that.


Leonard and Ilene with my Mother, Juleen Reher in the center...

If anyone else has some memories to share... please send them along or add them below. I will try to scan some photos although they won't be good as I don't have the originals.

Jodi

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