Jere Jay Neibarger

A celebration of life for Jere Jay Neibarger, 80, Lawrence, will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home, 601 Indiana St., Lawrence, KS. Private inurnment will be held at Hubbel Hill Cemetery in Tonganoxie, KS, at a later date for both Jere and his wife, June, who preceded him in death. They will be buried together.
Jere died Sunday, February 20, 2011. The body was cremated.
He was born September 28, 1930, in Tonganoxie. He was one of five children born to Walter and Tresa (Hukill) Neibarger. He grew up in Tonganoxie, Valley Falls, and Burlington, KS.
He married G. June Lesser Neibarger on January 9, 1965, at the Congregational Church in Tonganoxie. She died on December 5, 2010.
Jere served four years in the U.S. Marines including two years with the occupation forces in Japan. While in Japan he served six months in Tokyo with an honorary Military Police Unit for General Douglas McArthur. He also served one year during the Korean War. He later became a licensed pilot and FAA-certified master mechanic and was employed by Trans World Airlines and Boeing Airplane Company before joining Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita, KS, as a Technical Writer and then as Service Information Administrator for several years.
Jere later owned and edited three area newspaper and printing businesses over a fifteen-year period, including the Tonganoxie Mirror, the De Soto News, and the Overbrook Citizen.
He worked for 18 years at Lawrence Memorial Hospital and retired as a Communications Technician in 1995.
Jere was a 50-year member of the Albert Pike Masonic Lodge No. 303 in Wichita and a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Lawrence.
He was preceded in death by his parents, two sisters, and one brother.
He is survived by two daughters, Katrina Rodriguez, husband Jose, and son Marcus of Greenwood, IN, and Anna White, husband John, and daughter Amanda and son Ethan, of Lawrence; one son, Derek, wife Christine, and son Forrest and daughter Ashley Beiter of Lawrence; one brother, John E. of Clinton, MO; and numerous nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.
The family suggests memorials to the Albert Pike Masonic Lodge No. 303, in care of the Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home.
Online condolences may be sent at www.rumsey-yost.com.