Obituary

LuVerna Marie Duerksen

1934 - 2020

LuVerna Marie Duerksen was born on September 9, 1934 at the home-town hospital in Goessel, KS to Bernhard and Marie (Warnke) Duerksen. Marie saw the name LuVerna in the newspaper when she was pregnant and decided that would be a good name if she had a girl. LuVerna attended the Gordon Elementary School in Goessel and graduated from Goessel High school in 1952. She was baptized into the Tabor Mennonite Church in 1951. She participated in a 9-week session of Mennonite Voluntary Service in Gulfport, Mississippi after High school. When LuVerna returned to Goessel she had jobs care-taking for children of two different families; she was a "natural" with children. She attended Bethel College for one semester and then decided to move to Wichita where she worked at the Wichita Clinic until 1984. She then returned to child care, but this time in the position of nursery attendant at several large Wichita churches.

LuVerna died at the Bethesda Home in Goessel, just across the street from where she had been born. She was a member of the Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church.

A graveside service will be held on Thursday, November 19 at 10:00 a.m. at the Tabor Mennonite Church Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Bethesda Home or the Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church.