LaVesta A. Banning

Private graveside services for LaVesta A. “Tess” Banning, 81, Lawrence, will be held at the Washington Creek Cemetery in southwest Douglas County.
Mrs. Banning died Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010, at the Hillside Village of De Soto.
She was born on Nov. 27, 1928, in Lawrence, the daughter of James R. and Alberta Bateson Rule. She grew up in Lawrence and was a 1946 graduate of Liberty Memorial High School. She attended one year at the Lawrence Business College.
Mrs. Banning was first employed as a secretary for the executive vice president of Lawrence National Bank. She later worked in Augusta, Ga., and then for the FMC Corporation and KPL, both in Lawrence. She and her husband founded the Banning Oil & Ice Company in 1966 in Lawrence; currently the business is still owned and operated by the family as a restaurant equipment company.
Mrs. Banning was a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church and the American Legion Auxiliary.
She married Charles Warren Banning on Sept. 17, 1950, in Lawrence. He survives of the home.
Other survivors include a daughter, Nancy Amison and husband Willie, of Lawrence, a son, Bruce Banning and fiancee Trish Van Vliet, Lawrence and three grandchildren, Ryan, Morgan and Jennifer.
She was preceded in death by her father, James Rule, and her mother, Alberta Rule Selichnow.
The family will greet friends from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence.
The family suggests memorials to the Douglas County Visiting Nurses, Rehabilitation and Hospice Care or Trinity Lutheran Church, sent in care of the mortuary, 120 W. 13th St., Lawrence, KS 66044.
Online condolences may be sent at warrenmcelwain.com