Audrey Searcey

Audrey Louise Searcey, a loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother whose hatred of dandelions was countered only by her love of proper grammar, died on June 21. She was 86. The middle daughter of a gas station owner and his wife, Louise adopted the character of “Joyce,” a member of her cousins’ fearsome Coyote Kids who roamed Indian Creek. She loved ice skating in Arbor-State Park, babysitting the York children and summering on a Minnesota lake. She graduated from Peru State Teachers College and taught at Axtell, Kansas, and Ralston and then taught English at Southern High. In 1961, she married Larry Searcey. She quit full-time teaching when her youngest daughter arrived. She later endured the loss of a baby boy and, after her husband died in a car accident, raised her other children on her own. She later worked selling ads at KWBE and then as secretary of the Wymore Church of Christ where she was editor in chief of The Visitor. Much of what little free time she had was spent giving back: playing the organ for church, teaching toddlers’ Sunday School and tending to others who had lost loved ones. Louise often could be found in her yard, bent over at the waist digging up dandelions and delighting in the first springtime crocuses. Her moral center was unshakeable and her mastery of the English language impeccable - and often imposed upon others. She roamed the aisles of Allen’s Hy-Klas Foods with a magic marker, correcting the spelling and grammar of hand-made signs advertising bargains. Louise was preceded in death by her parents Clair Marshall and Audrey Chapman Marshall, husband Larry, son Mark Leon and sister-in-law Maxine Marshall, and is survived by three children, Rod and fiance Karen Guttieri; Kim and husband Gary Radtke; Dionne and husband Todd Stevens; siblings Barb Kostal, Judy and Walt Henrichs and John Marshall; grandchildren Contessa Hannig, Jessica Brown and husband John, Nathaniel Radtke and wife Amanda, Luther, Zola and Maude Stevens and great-grandchildren Alyvia, Elijah, Josie, Peyton and Remington Brown; and nephews and nieces and their children, all of whom she loved dearly. A funeral service will be held at 11:00 AM on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 at the Wymore Church of Christ. Burial will be at the Wymore Cemetery. A family prayer service will begin at 10:45 AM. The body will lie in state at the Laughlin-Hoevet Funeral Home in Wymore on Tuesday from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM with the family greeting relatives and friends from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM, and at the church one hour prior to the service on Wednesday. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Wymore Church of Christ or Kingsway Christian Church with the funeral home in charge. Sign Louise’s online register book and view her video tribute when complete at www.ghchapel.com. These services have been entrusted to the Laughlin-Hoevet Funeral Home in Wymore.

Jennifer Lewis

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