Laverne D. Ellis

LaVerne Dean Ellis passed away Sunday, August 9, 2020, at his home in Lane, Kansas, at the age of 88. He was born July 16, 1932, on the family farm in Miami County, east of Lane, the son of Clifford G. and Mildred L. (Johnson) Ellis. LaVerne attended Clark Valley grade school and graduated from Lane Rural High School with the class of 1951. He and Mary Amelia Hieber, his high school love, married in the Lane Methodist Church November 15, 1953. They lived in rural Lane, KS on the family farm where they were blessed with three daughters – Diana Lynn, Katherine Ruth and Nancy LaVerne. LaVerne grew up on his grandfather’s farm, his father’s farm, and he farmed the land where he grew up. He farmed his modest tract of land for decades, and he farmed hundreds of acres around the Lane area. He was a progressive farmer, practicing irrigation and fertilization techniques in the 1950s that many would not pick up until the ‘80s and ‘90s. LaVerne’s crops would go on to win several awards. He was honored several times for the corn yields his fields would turn out. When farms were averaging about 40 bushels of corn per acre, his fields turned out in excess of 200 bushels per acre. LaVerne fastidiously tracked the weather daily: the high temperature, the low and the precipitation. LaVerne was frequently seen, after he retired, tending to his pastures and sometimes his neighbors’ pastures, too, and he regularly visited cafes and taverns in Lane, Greeley and Osawatomie. With his neighbors there, he would drink coffee and shoot the breeze. Interspersed in his life-long farming practice was a stint in the late ‘70s as the owner of the Derby Gas Station, just south of Osawatomie; working the roads in construction; and hauling rock, sand, asphalt and water for several companies before retiring from that in 2000. In 2017, he sold the family farm and moved back to Lane with Mary. In his final years of life, he was feeding and letting out his neighbor’s chickens. Fishing and hunting were his past times and he also watched the Kansas City Royals, Chiefs, Kansas University or Arkansas University to pass the time. LaVerne was preceded in death by his parents Clifford G. Ellis in 1980 and Mildred L. Ellis in 1998; his daughter Diana Ellis in 1998 and grandson Joshuah Bartlett in 1993. He is survived by his wife Mary; daughters Katherine (Kent) Dunn, Lawrence, Kansas; Nancy (Kent) Ellis-Grimwood, Farmington, Arkansas; grandchildren Jeremy Bartlett, Osawatomie, Kansas; Garrett Grimwood, Farmington, Arkansas; Harrison Grimwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Ashley and Morgan Dunn, Scottsdale, Arizona; Kasey Dunn, Lawrence, Kansas; and great grandchildren Jaxon Grimwood, Farmington, Arkansas; and Joshuah, Michaeluah and Coltaun Bartlett, Parker, Kansas. Private inurnment will take place at the Lane Cemetery. To share your memories of LaVerne or leave a special condolence message for his family, please click on LaVerne's tribute wall. Memorials are to Crossroads Hospice and can be sent in care of the funeral home - Dengel & Son Mortuary-Crematory, 305 N. Pearl St., Paola, KS, 66071.