LaVeta Loganbill Habegger
LaVeta Loganbill Habegger, 83, died
Tuesday (Aug. 19, 2008) in her home in Newton while under the care of
Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice.
She was born Feb. 28, 1925, near Tulsa,
Okla., to Aldus and Susanna Krehbiel Loganbill. Her father died when
she was 2 years of age. When she was 3, her mother married Albert
Penner, who farmed northeast of Hillsboro.
LaVeta married the Rev. Dr. David L.
Habegger on Aug. 18, 1946, in the Bethel College Chapel in North
Newton. She is survived by her husband and their five children,
Rachel and John Pannabecker, Nathan and Nicole Habegger, Christen and
Trish Habegger, Rebecca and Roger Zehr, and Peter Habegger. They have
11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Her siblings are the
two children of Albert and Eliese (Riesen) Penner, Randy Penner and
Hilda (Mrs. Richard) Jantzen, both deceased; the children of Aldus
and Susanna Loganbill, Vera (Mrs. Orville) Kliewer of Dodge City, and
Eleanor (Mrs. Joe) Lehman of Ft. Collins, Colo.; and the children of
Albert and Susanna (Krehbiel) Penner, Loretta (Mrs.Victor) Krehbiel
of Pretty Prairie, and Lorene K. (Mrs. Robert) Goering of Newton.
LaVeta was baptized by the Rev. Arnold
E. Funk and united with the Bruderthal Mennonite Church in Hillsboro.
Since retiring in Newton, she joined the Bethel College Mennonite
Church in North Newton.
LaVeta graduated from Bethel College
with a B.A. in Bible; from Goshen College with a B.S. in home
economics; and from Western Michigan University with a M.A. in home
economics.
The Habeggers served churches in Busby
and Lame Deer, Montana; Carlock, Ill.; Allentown, Penn.; Upland,
Calif.; Elkhart, Ind.; Wichita; and Champaign-Urbana, Ill. for a
total of 42 years. Following retirement in 1991, they lived in Fort
Wayne, Ind., and since March 2003 in Newton.
In addition to being a homemaker and a
teacher of children's Sunday school classes, LaVeta taught in junior
and senior high schools and at Friends University in Wichita. In
Urbana, she taught quilting through an adult education program.
She made many quilts, nine of which
were for both the conferences of the General Conference Mennonite
Church and Mennonite Church USA; and for the Strasbourg, France,
Mennonite World Conference. These were all hand quilted.
For a number of years, she made and
filled 11 school kits for MCC in honor of her grandchildren, and she
also sewed several hundred school kit bags for others to fill.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m.
Friday at Petersen Funeral Home in Newton. Burial will be at 10 a.m.
Saturday in the cemetery of First Mennonite Church of Christian in
Moundridge.
A memorial service will be at 3 p.m.
Saturday at Bethel College Mennonite Church in North Newton, with
pastor Heidi Regier Kreider presiding.
Memorials may be given to MCC for
feeding hungry children and to Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice in care
of Petersen Funeral Home.
