Lorene I. Rhodes, Madison
1913 - 2007
Lorene I. Rhodes of Madison, mother of Leonard Rhodes of Emporia, died Friday, Oct. 12, 2007, at the Emporia Presbyterian Manor. She was 93.
Services are pending at the Wilson Funeral Home in Madison.
The funeral for longtime Madison resident Lorene I. Rhodes will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Wilson Funeral Home in Madison. The Rev. Vernon Clark will conduct the service. Burial will be in Number Eight Cemetery, east of Madison. The family will meet friends from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.
The family suggests that, instead of flowers, memorial contributions be made to the Central Christian Church or Hand in Hand Hospice and sent in care of the funeral home, P.O. Box 488, Madison, KS 66860.
Mrs. Rhodes died Friday, Oct. 12, 2007, at the Emporia Presbyterian Manor. She was 93.
She owned and operated the launderette in Madison for almost 30 years. Before she was married, she operated a small cafe in Madison. After marriage, she and her husband, Lester, lived on a farm in the Parie Chapel Community near Gridley. They moved to Illinois for a few years and returned to Kansas in 1942. In 1947, they purchased the family farm in rural Madison.
The daughter of Philip and Annie Jager Sauder, she was born Nov. 2, 1913, in rural Gridley. She grew up in Gridley and attended an oil field school there while helping her parents on the farm.
She married Lester Rhodes on Feb. 17, 1938, at Emporia. He died July 15, 1993.
Mrs. Rhodes was a member of the Central Christian Church in Madison, where she taught Sunday school for many years and also was a member and past president of the women’s circle at the church. She did volunteer work at the Madison Manor.
She is survived by one son, Leonard Rhodes of Emporia; one grandson; one stepgrandson; one stepgranddaughter; and five stepgreat-grandchildren. A son, Leslie Rhodes, died in 1957; a daughter, Loretta, died in 1952. Five brothers, Ralph Sauder, George Sauder, Chester Sauder, Oliver Sauder and Harold Sauder; and four sisters, Elsie Strahm, Sophia Elrod, Lilian Pinon and Emma Alloway, died earlier.