Wanda Mae Layher of Rockville, Missouri was born October 20, 1926 in the home of her parents James W. and Grace (Bowden) Carroll near the Osage River in Osceola, Missouri. She passed away peacefully on October 24, 2016 at Truman Lake Manor at the age of 90 years and 4 days.
She accepted Jesus as her Savior in her teenage years and was a member of the Osceola Christian Church. Wanda graduated from Osceola High School in 1944. She worked at Shelby’s Dime Store in Osceola for awhile and then moved to Kansas City with her sister, Lena. She worked at Hallmark Cards and also at Sears and Roebuck. Her last job in the city was at Western Electric in Lee’s Summit where she worked for about a year.
Wanda married Marion Burrow and they had one son Jim. She then married Jim Powell and had two more children Mike and Carol. Wanda and Jim and their family moved back to Osceola in 1962. Wanda worked at the Commercial Restaurant for Jim Naylor for several years while living in Osceola.
She married Lawrence Layher in March of 1973 and moved to Rockville where she worked as a homemaker, raising a huge garden and sharing it with family and friends. Wanda and Lawrence loved to play pitch. They spent many enjoyable evenings playing cards with family and friends. Wanda was an excellent cook and her family always looked forward to eating at Grandma Wanda’s.
Wanda was preceded in death by her husband, Lawrence of 42 years; parents, Jim and Grace (Bowden) Carroll; all of her brothers and sisters, Lena Kauffman Rains and her twin (who died in infancy) Roy Homer Carroll, Glen Carroll and Lloyd Gene Carroll and baby sister Mary Frances, who died as an infant and one great grandson, Luke Lewis.
She is survived by her three children, Jim and Clarice Burrow of Osceola, Missouri, Mike and Dorothy Powell of Archie, Missouri and Carol and Bruce Daulton of Osceola, Missouri; stepdaughter, Linda and David Middleton of Salina, Kansas; 7 grandchildren and 8 step grandchildren as well as many great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. She also leaves behind many nieces, nephews, other relatives and many friends.
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