Opal I. Kunkel, WAVERLY
Opal I. Kunkel of Waverly died Monday, Aug. 13, 2007, at Sunset Manor in Waverly. She was 91.
Mrs. Kunkel was a bookkeeper for a trucking company in Ottawa before her marriage. Earlier, in Ottawa, she worked at Scott’s Dime Store, advanced to assistant manager and was transferred to Columbus, Ohio, and then to Kansas City, Mo.
The daughter of Dick and Grace E. Young Nearmyer, she was born Dec. 23, 1915, in Ottawa. She spent her early childhood in Parsons, where she attended school. She returned to Ottawa with her family and attended business college.
She married Albert A. Kunkel on April 6, 1947, in Ottawa. They lived on the family farm southeast of Waverly and she helped farm. He died Nov. 8, 1989.
Since 1947, Mrs. Kunkel was a member of the First Baptist Church in Waverly, where she also was treasurer, clerk and Sunday school superintendent. She was active in the Coffey County Farm Bureau and served eight years as county women’s chairman of the Coffey County board of directors.
She was a sewing leader for the Lucky Diamond 4-H Club for 15 years, a member of the Homemakers Club, Prairie View home extension unit, Waverly Booster Club, Waverly Youth Center board and the Coffey County Museum board. She also was a correspondent for the Coffey County Republican and delivered Meals on Wheels. She was nominated for the local Athena Award for leadership.
After retirement from the farm, she was site manager for the Waverly Senior Center Nutrition Program until she was 88. She helped many people participate in the Senior Center and Pen Pal Program with fifth-grade students at Waverly Grade School.
She is survived by one son, David Kunkel of Waverly; three grandchildren and three great-granddaughters. Three brothers, Clarence Nearmyer, Lawrence Nearmyer and Henry Stein; and three sisters, Edna Roebuck, Dorothy Commeree and Carol Teal, died earlier.
The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Friday at the Waverly Baptist Church in Waverly. The family will meet friends from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Jones Funeral Home in Burlington.
Memorial contributions to the church or the Waverly Senior Center may be sent in care of the funeral home, P.O. Box 277, Burlington, KS 66839.