Obituaries / LJWorld.com

Obituaries

Funeral services for Yvonne June Keefer, 74, Lawrence, will be 11 a.m. Saturday at First Southern Baptist Church in Lawrence. Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12, at Ula Cemetery in Westcliffe, Colo.
Mrs. Keefer died Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010, at her home.
She was born Oct. 2, 1935, in Gotebo, Okla., the daughter of Carl and Zelma Bond Kelsoe.
She received her bachelor of science degree in home economics from Oklahoma State University.
Mrs. Keefer was active in Southern Baptist work, serving as a campus minister first at Washburn University in 1967 and 1968, and then Kansas University from 1969 through 1982. She briefly served as minister of education at First Southern Baptist Church of Lawrence in 1969. She became executive director of Woman’s Missionary Union responsible for missions education for the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists in 1983, retiring in 2003.
She and her husband lived part-time in Westcliffe, Colo., where she served as a road commissioner in Tanglewood Acres, an incorporated community.
She was a member of First Southern Baptist Church of Lawrence and was an associate member of First Baptist Church of Westcliffe, Colo. She was a member of HZ Chapter of PEO Sisterhood. During the ’70s and ’80s she served as a police chaplain to the Lawrence Police Department. She also served on numerous national boards of the Woman’s Missionary Union of Southern Baptists.
She married Jim Keefer on June 8, 1955, in Oklahoma City. He survives of the home.
Other survivors include two sons, Steve, Las Animas, Colo., and Brian, Tampa, Fla.; a sister, Jean Denton, Oklahoma City; and four grandchildren.
The family will meet friends from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at the church.
The family suggests memorials to the Webster Conference Center Elevator Fund, the First Southern Baptist Church in Lawrence, or the building fund of the First Baptist Church of Westcliffe, sent in care of the Warren-McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13th St., Lawrence, KS 66044.
Online condolences may be sent at warrenmcelwain.com.