Obituary

Lois Magdalene Schlender, 78, of Emporia, died on Monday (Nov. 29, 2010) at the Holiday Resort Care Center.

Lois Magdalene Voth was born on Jan. 16, 1932, in Halstead, the daughter of Edward Duerksen Voth and Bertha Voth Voth. Lois and her family moved to La Fontaine when she was 5 years old. She attended the La Fontaine School with the elementary and high school in the same building. When the family relocated to Walton, Lois finished the eighth grade at Sugar Grove school, and then went to Walton High School, and then later graduated from Berean Academy in Elbing.

Lois served in voluntary service with Mennonite Central Committee in Mississippi and New York during 1953 and 1954. Later she attended KU Florence Cook Department of Practical Nurse Education in Kansas City, graduating in 1957. She worked in Newton, and then moved to Emporia to work at The Meadows nursing home in Emporia when it opened. That is where she met the love of her life, Roy Schlender, the son of one of her residents. They married on Aug. 1, 1965, in Newton, and moved to his farm near Olpe. During the time they lived there, she worked as an LPN in various places, and also in private duty.
She traveled to Haiti on short-term medical mission trips in 1987 and 1989; these experiences were very meaningful to her. Roy accompanied her on the second Haiti trip. Other travels included trips to Colorado and California.
Roy retired from the farm, and they moved to Emporia where Lois continued to do private duty in homes. She and Roy decided to move into an apartment at the Holiday Estates. Roy died on Nov. 5, 2002, at the Holiday Resort Care Center in Emporia.

Lois accepted the Lord at an early age, and was baptized in the Walton Mennonite Church in 1947. She was a member of Grace United Methodist Church in Emporia.

She is survived by one sister, Ella E. Wiebe of Hillsboro; and a brother, Harold Voth, and his wife, Margaret of Fresno, Calif. She is preceded in death by her parents; husband, Roy; and two brothers, David Voth and Daniel Voth.
The memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Grace United Methodist Church. The service will be conducted by Pastor Earl Detwiler of the Grace United Methodist Church in Emporia. The private inurnment will be in the Pleasant Ridge Cemetery outside of Olpe. Memorial contributions to Grace United Methodist Church may be sent in care of Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home.