OPAL IRENE YOUNG

LAMAR- A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, March 29, at Konantz Warden Funeral Home for Opal Irene Young, 88, Lamar, who died at 6:02 p.m. on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at Good Shepherd Nursing Home in Lockwood, following a lengthy illness.

The family will receive visitors from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28, at the funeral home.

Memorial contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to the American Cancer Society or St. James Cemetery, in care of the funeral home.

The obituary may be viewed and condolences sent online at www.konantzwarden.com.

Survivors include four children, Nancy Trotter, Lamar, Kenny Sims and wife Tina, Nixa, Kimala Dodson, Olathe, Kan. and Bradley Sims and Kim Burns, Stockton; a stepson, Audie Young and Diane Morganti of Rochester, N.Y.; a sister, Kay Marti Lamar; six grandchildren, Joshua Trotter, Kracinda Sims, Kee Sims and wife Mindy, Dakota Dodson and wife Frankie, Damon Dodson and Kalli Dodson and five great-grandchildren, Patience Elders, Gabe Greenway, Camilla Sims, Parker Dodson and Grant Dodson.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Vern Young; a brother, Forrest Wayne Gardner; a sister, Helen Jean Marti and a stepson, Steve Young.

Mrs. Young was born June 19, 1935, northeast of Milford in the home of her parents, Tom and Katherine (Twaddell) Gardner. She went to Valley and Milford rural schools and was a 1953 graduate of Lamar High School. During her senior year of high school she was employed in the office at RPM (later to become Lawn-Boy Mfg.). After her marriage in 1953 to Edwin Sims she became a housewife, mother of four children, helped with farming and worked a short while for Big Smith Mfg.

It was when her youngest son was in kindergarten that she became employed by the late Madeline Aull Van Haffen and the late Stan White at the Lamar Democrat as a receptionist and circulation manager. She worked 26 ½ years doing various jobs for the paper, under several different owners. She spent her last three years at the Democrat as a news/advertising coordinator, where her personal columns became widely read. She then went to work as the office manager of Lohmeyer-Konantz Funeral Home in Lamar, retiring in December 2000.

She married Lewis “Vern” Young on Dec. 19, 1997, in Laughlin, Nevada. He was a country/bluegrass entertainer and after he moved to Missouri, one of her greatest joys was to travel with him and to help him with his many musical performances throughout the United States. They also did a great deal of traveling to different parts of the United States, visiting with family and bluegrass fans when musical engagements weren’t involved.