Daisy Laurene (Hale) Finkner

Daisy Laurene (“Laurene”) Hale Finkner was born January 28, 1932, to Frank Lorin and Daisy Colman Hale in a sod home thirty-five miles southwest of Akron, Colorado. Laurene was the second youngest of seven children, and given the distance from town, she was delivered by an older sister. She graduated from Lindon High School, then attended Colorado State College of Education in Greeley, Colorado, for one summer and received an emergency teaching certificate. That fall Laurene taught at a small school south of Anton, Colorado.

Laurene married Ralph Finkner on June 11, 1950, and they moved to Ames, Iowa, where Ralph earned a doctorate degree in agronomy and Laurene worked in several laboratories on campus.

They moved to Rocky Ford, Colorado, when Ralph accepted a job as a sugar beet breeder for American Crystal Sugar. Laurene became a full-time mom of three but found time to take a few college courses at La Junta Junior College and taught Sunday School for many years. After 14 years in Rocky Ford, the family moved to Clovis, New Mexico, where Ralph became a professor at New Mexico State University and the superintendent of a research station. Laurene always sewed for the family and was widely acknowledged as an expert seamstress. She designed suits for herself and her daughters, sewed slacks for Ralph to wear to professional meetings, made matching dresses for her granddaughters, and helped with many 4-H sewing projects. One of her paraphrases of Proverbs was “As you sew, so shall you rip.”

When her youngest, Lyle, started kindergarten, Laurene decided she needed more education. She enrolled at Eastern New Mexico University where she became a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Delta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. and later a M.A. in Social Studies and Elementary Education. She taught for 15 years in the Clovis Schools before moving to Egypt where Ralph headed a USAID project for two and half years. Laurene taught one year in Egypt at Cairo American College. Laurene and Ralph traveled the world, sometimes on business and sometimes for fun. Together they visited over 50 countries. They loved trips with the whole family, especially a safari trip to Kenya and Zimbabwe with their children, spouses and grandchildren.

Laurene was baptized in the Methodist Church where she served until late in life.

Laurene’s greatest joy was her family and friends, and she would always light up a gathering with her winning smile and demeanor.

Laurene was preceded in death by her parents and her husband of 67 years, Ralph. She is survived by her sister Mary (Ron) Appenzeller of Dayton, Ohio; her three children, Twila (Jim) Hendrix of Wray, Colorado, Lisa Templeman of San Antonio, Texas, and Lyle (Heather) Finkner of Albuquerque, New Mexico; five grandchildren, Ben (Heather) Hendrix of Wray, Colorado, Taneal (Ryan) Behm of Windsor, Colorado, Lorena (Jon) Malecha of Lincoln, Nebraska, Tori (Nathan) Buchner of Bryan, Texas, and Tara Templeman of Broomfield, Colorado. She was also survived by six great-grandchildren, Kate and Ted Hendrix, Trevor, Trista, and Evan Behm, and Laureline Malecha.

A Memorial Service will be held on Friday, September 27, 2019, 10:00 a.m. at the Wray United Methodist Church in Wray, Colorado with Pastor Ben Wentworth officiating. Inurnment will be in the Fort Logan National Cemetery, 4400 W. Kenyon Avenue, Denver, Colorado 80236 on Monday, September 30, 2019 at 2:15 p.m. Memorials may be made to the Wray Public Library. Cremation was requested. Schmidt - Jones Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.