Gladys K. Fisher

KALONA ? Gladys Kathleen Fisher, 87, or Kalona, died Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in the Pleasantview Home in Kalona.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m., Monday, June 6, at the Lower Deer Creek Mennonite Church in rural Kalona with the Rev. Don Patterson officiating. Burial will be in the East Union Cemetery. Visitation will be from 2 to 8 p.m., Sunday at the Yoder-Powell Funeral Home in Kalona, where the family will greet friends from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m.

Mrs. Fisher was born Feb. 10, 1929, in rural Kalona in Johnson County, the daughter of Lewis and Barbara (Miller) Bender. She married Robert Wayne Fisher on May 31, 1951, at East Union Mennonite Church in Kalona.

She lived in the Kalona/Wellman area for nearly all of her lifetime. She spent two years in La Junta, Colorado, as an LPN when her husband was in voluntary service. She graduated from the 12th grade at Hesston Academy in Hesston, Kansas. She attended Teachers College in Cedar Falls, obtaining her teaching certificate, and later attended Goshen College to re-certify for teaching. She taught in rural elementary schools for 5 ½ years. After teaching, she was a homemaker and did domestic labor. She was a member of Lower Deer Creek Mennonite Church, teaching Sunday school, and was an active member in WMSC. She was also a member of Optimists, Farm Bureau, and was past chairperson for Johnson County Farm Bureau Ladies.

Surviving are six children, Marvin and wife Vicki of Wichita, Kansas, Grace Tully and husband Jim of Iowa City, Sara Brown and husband Glenn of Iowa City, Peggy Haines and husband John of Iowa City, Ralph and wife Cindy of Wellman, and Mary Anderson of Hiawatha; eight grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; two sisters, Mary (Mrs. Lloyd) Miller of Glendale, Arizona, and Vera Yoder of Wellman; and one brother, Daniel Bender (husband of Ora) of Harrisonburg, Virginia.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Robert; one infant son; both her parents; one sister, Nina Bontrager Yoder; and two brothers, Clarence Bender (husband of Freida), and Paul Bender (husband of Leona).