- Date Of Birth: March 23, 1949
- Date Of Death: June 6, 2008
- State: Missouri
Lela (Weinhold) Butery, 59, of St. James, passed away on Friday, June 6, 2008 at the Phelps County Regional Medical Center in Rolla, MO after a lengthy illness.
Lela was born on March 23, 1949 in Cape Girardeau, MO. She was the fifth child born to the late Edgar and Sylvia (Kassel) Weinhold. Lela grew up on a farm near Frohna, MO and graduated from Perryville High School in 1967. She attended college at Southeast Missouri University in Cape Girardeau, where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education in 1971. During the summers of her high school and college years, she often worked as a nanny for a family in St. Louis.
While teaching in the primary grades in Viburnum and living in the Bixby area in Missouri, she met and later married Larry Butery. They were wed on May 25, 1974, at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, MO. After their wedding, Lela and Larry moved to St. James, MO where Lela taught at Lucy Wortham James Elementary School until she retired in 2003. After retiring from 31 years of teaching she returned to tutor students one-on-one. Even while going through treatment for cancer, she worked to touch the lives of children.
But first and foremost, Lela enjoyed her family. Throughout her life, she had four loves – her husband, Larry; her sons, Steven and Eric, and teaching.
