Lorada Custer

August 21, 2005

Funeral services for Lorada Custer, 83, of Jefferson, Iowa will be 10:30 AM Thursday August 25, 2005 at the First United Methodist Church in Jefferson, Iowa. Interment in the Jefferson Cemetery. Visitation will start at 8:00 AM Wednesday at Slininger-Rossow Funeral Home in Jefferson, with family present to greet friends from 7:00-9:00 PM Wednesday evening at the funeral home. Lorada B. (Gardner) Custer was born on a farm near Churdan on November 23, 1921, to Albin B. "Pete" Gardner and Pearle E. (Andrew) Gardner. She was the fifth of six children born to the couple. Her family farmed in rural Greene County and she graduated from Paton High School in 1939. Lorada married Jacob E. Custer on May 5, 1943 in Omaha, Nebraska. The couple farmed for many years on their Iowa Century Farm north of Jefferson. They were the parents of two sons, Roger and Thomas. After the death of Jacob in 1970, Lorada became a homemaker for the Department of Human Services and the Greene County Department of Public Health, retiring in 1985. She returned to that position for two years, from 1990 - 1992. Lorada donated decades of service to the Greene County Medical Center as a Hospice-Respite Volunteer and an Auxiliary Volunteer. She was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Jefferson. Lorada lived her life as a caretaker: of her family, of her friends; of her flowers, of her yard. She also enjoyed reading and making scrapbooks. She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law: Roger and Carole Custer, Jefferson; Thomas and Laine Custer, Jefferson; three grandchildren: Whitney Custer, Jefferson; Leslie Custer, West Des Moines, Iowa; and Grant Custer, Jefferson; sister, Zatha Blair, Jefferson; brother, Larry Gardner, Jefferson; brother-in-law, Jody Custer, Jefferson; sister-in-law Mary Catherine (Custer) Dodson, Fort Worth, Texas; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jacob; her brother, Clyde Gardner; her two sisters, Zelpha Taylor and Marjorie Gardner; and her parents. The family suggests memorials to the Jefferson Public Library or Greene County Medical Center.