RACHEL RAYANNE COLLIER

LAMAR- Services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at Grace Place for Rachel Rayanne Collier, 24, Lamar, who died Friday, April 12, 2019, at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, after a sudden, unexplained illness. Visitation will be held prior to the service, beginning at 12 noon. Burial will be at Barton City Cemetery.

Arrangements are under the direction of Konantz Warden Funeral Home.

Memorial contributions may be made to Grace Place for a sound system upgrade and can be made in care of the funeral home.

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

Ms. Collier was born July 26, 1994, to Marty and Sharon Collier. She accepted Jesus as her savior when she was 12 years old during Onward Basketball at Grace Place. She loved studying the Bible, always with her beloved Strong’s Concordance nearby. She challenged herself to memorize scripture and had recently memorized the book of Philippians.

She loved music and always had a song in her heart and generally on her lips as well. She wrote many worship songs and often accompanied herself as she sang them for her church family. She played many instruments, including her first love, the piano and also loved the acoustic and electric guitars, as well as the baritone ukulele and the drums. She was an enthusiastic member of the Grace Place Worship Team and also loved volunteering coaching both Upward and Onward Basketball and cheerleading teams, and working at the snack bar.

She had a quick wit and loved to make people laugh. Her laugh was unforgettable as well as her sneeze. After a major surgery in 2010, she realized the difference an excellent nurse makes in the lives of their patients and set her goal on becoming a registered nurse. She was a student at Crowder College Neosho, where she loved learning and had earned her CNA and was pursuing her dream of becoming a registered nurse.

While in school she worked as a CNA at Granby House in Granby. She loved the residents and treated each one with love, dignity and respect, while seeing that all of their basic needs were met. She most recently was working at Dollar Tree in Lamar, loving the challenge of seeing how many boxes she could stock in her shift and enjoying her co-workers and customers.

She will be sadly missed by her parents, as well as her siblings, Bryan Bass and wife Katie and Sara Laepple and husband Hayden, all of Lamar. The joy of her life were her nieces and nephews, Daniel, Bethany, Charity, Kaylee and Kynzie Bass and Seth, Mira and Camille Laepple. Her grandmother, Patsy Collier, Weatherford, Okla. and several aunts and uncles.

She was preceded in death by her grandparents, Bill and Elaine Reynolds and Weldon Collier, as well as an uncle, Steve Collier.