Leona Eppert Obituary

Eppert

Leona & Willard Ray Eppert

January 19, 2022



Leona Jeanne Eppert, loving wife, mother, and grandmother, passed peacefully in her sleep to be with the Lord Jesus Christ on January 15, 2022 at the age of 87. Leona touched many lives with her smile, laughter, and hysterical wit. Willard Ray Eppert, loving husband, father, and grandfather, went to be with his Lord Jesus Christ on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at the age of 92, just 4 days after his loving wife of 61 years passed over to the other side of the veil.

Leona was born in Fresno, California on May 19, 1934. She attended Westmont College in Santa Barbara, majoring in voice. Leona's voice was a blessing to many weddings and occasions through her life, including singing her children to sleep every night. She minored with a teaching degree and later received her Master's Degree in Elementary Math. She taught many grades, her favorite being Kindergarten. She was a perpetual student, which made her a very creative teacher who was remembered by her students years after they graduated.

Ray was born in Pontiac Michigan on July 15, 1929. He attended Pontiac High School and served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. He attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs from 1954 to 1958. He served with the Navigators at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs as an accountant and groundskeeper two of the summers while at Colorado College.

The couple met while serving with the Navigators at the Cedar Avenue Baptist Church in Fresno, CA in 1958 and married in 1960. They attended the Mennonite Brethren Church in Fresno, and then the Living Word Church in Clovis. They lived in Fresno, CA for 30 years and raised their 2 children, Tom and Robyn.

Ray was an accountant for multiple water districts in the Fresno County unincorporated areas and was an Elder/Associate Pastor at his church. They moved to the Burbank hills in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles, where Leona taught in their church and Ray worked for the church pastor. In 1994, he and Leona retired and returned to Colorado, to the small, peaceful town of Monument. There, they attended the Ascent Church on Woodmoor Drive.

Leona is being welcomed in heaven by her parents, Yervant and Victoria Thomas, and her elder sister, Doreen Rettig. Ray is being welcomed in heaven by his parents, Charles Willard and Lela Fern, his sister Georgia, and his wife Leona. The two are survived by their daughter and son-in-law Robyn and Kemit Millheim, who cared for them in their old age in Monument, Colorado, their son and daughter-in-law Tom and Lisa Eppert, and their grandchildren Amy and Jonathan Eppert who live in San Diego, California.

A Celebration of Life will be organized and announced this coming spring.