KNABE, Leona - b. July 24, 1899 - d. February 24, 2007

[Janet Harrington]

(The Flint Hills Express Feb. 28, 2007 page 4)

107 YEARS OF AGE

Leona Knabe passed away on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2007 at the Howard Twilight Manor in Howard.  She was 107 years of age and a long time resident of Moline.  Leona was born on July 24, 1899 on a farm near Bonner Springs, Kan. to George Monroe and Annie (Seever) Knabe.  In 1905, she moved with her family to a farm south of Moline where she attended rural school and worked on the farm.

She graduated from Moline High School in 1919 and attended Pittsburg State Teachers College for three years, earning a lifetime teaching certificate.  Leona taught at Pleasant Hill, Pershing and Center country schools near Moline and also taught fourth grade at Ulysses, Kan. during the Dust Bowl years of the early 1930's.

In 1935, her father was killed in a car accident at Wichita and Leona and her sister were seriously injured.  Following the accident, Leona gave up teaching and returned to Moline to help care for her mother and work for The Moline Advance newspaper and Axtell's Printing Shop.  She lived in her own home and continued to operate her farm land near Moline until well into her 90's.  She was a resident of the Elk Manor Nursing Home at Moline until recently moving to Howard Twilight Manor.

She is survived by her neices; Bonnie Knabe of Howard, Betty Sallee of Moline, Mary Riney of Denver, Colo., Kathryn Doshier of Wichita, Susan Mills of Derby and Martha Cooley of Moline.  She was preceded in death by her parents; a sister and brother-in-law, Hazel and Fred Axtell and a nephew, George F. Knabe.

Graveside services were held at 2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 26, at the Moline Cemetery with Pastor Stan Rumbaugh of the Moline Christian Church officiating.  Memorials have been established with the Moline Senior Center and the Moline Christian Church.  Contributions may be left with the funeral home.  The funeral arrangements are being made with the Zimmerman Funeral Home in Howard.