Obituaries / LJWorld.com

Obituaries

Funeral services for Eldred Lenore Rappard, 85, Ottawa, will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Worden United Methodist Church in Worden. Burial will be in the Worden Cemetery.

Mrs. Rappard died Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009, at her residence.

She was born Jan. 6, 1924 in Baldwin City, the daughter of Caroline “Carrie” Clark and Harry Fisher. She grew up north of Centropolis and attended Rangeline grade school in Douglas County. She attended high schools in Ottawa and Lawrence and graduated from Baldwin High School with the class of 1940.

She went to business school and worked in the office at Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant near De Soto. In later years she worked at the First National Bank of Lawrence and as an assistant to the Douglas County superintendent of schools. She obtained her Realtor’s license in the mid-1980s.

Mrs. Rappard loved to cook, sew and garden. She had a great love of music and was the church organist at Worden United Methodist Church, formerly Worden Evangelical United Brethren Church, for more than 35 years. She wrote words and music to a copyrighted song, “Call His Name Jesus,” and also published an album. At age 84 she began playing the piano on Fridays at the Serenity Tea Room in Ottawa. She was active in the Women’s Society at Worden, as well as the Douglas County EHU and the Farmerettes of Ottawa. For several years she volunteered with the Audio Reader program at Kansas University.

She married Donald Earl Rappard on Jan. 27, 1942, at Worden. They shared nearly 53 years of marriage until his death in 1994.

She was also preceded in death by her parents; two sisters, Velma McMasters and Mable Turner; and one brother, Lester Fisher.

Survivors include her three daughters, Miriam Ferguson and husband Larry, and Rosalind Perdue, all of Ottawa, and Julianna Brenneman, Overland Park; a son, Gary Rappard and wife Laura, Overland Park; seven grandchildren, Tammy Engle, Doug and Scott Ferguson, Erica and Daniel Rappard, and Brad Perdue and Ali Brenneman; seven great-grandchildren, Kelsie, Trenton, Paige, Derrek, Bret, Jared and Seth Ferguson; a sister, Lois Wheeler, Haddonfield, N.J.; and a brother-in-law, Wayne McMasters of Soquel, Calif.

The family will meet friends from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home in Ottawa.

The family suggests memorials to the Worden United Methodist Church, sent in care of Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home, P.O. Box 14, Ottawa, KS 66067.

Online condolences may be sent at <a href="http://lamb-roberts.com">lamb-roberts.com</a>.