Mary Lavanda Bender

      WELLMAN - Mary Lavanda Bender, 95, of Wellman, died Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004, at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City, following a sudden illness.

      Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 29, at Lower Deer Creek Mennonite Church in rural Kalona, with the Rev. Don Patterson officiating. Burial will be in Lower Deer Creek Cemetery. Visitation will begin at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 28, at Yoder-Powell Funeral Home in Kalona, with the family receiving friends from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m. Memorials may be directed to Lower Deer Creek Mennonite Church, Iowa Mennonite School or Pleasantview Home.

      Mrs. Bender was born on April 23, 1909, near Parnell, to Christian and Magdalena (Kauffman) Birky. On Feb. 19, 1933, she married Edwin C. Bender in Cedar Rapids.