Lee Ann West

1936 - 2023

Lee Ann West was born July 27th, 1936, in Putnam County Worthington Missouri. She died, Dec. 13, 2023. She is the granddaughter of James Monroe and Clara Edna Davis West. She is the granddaughter of Joseph Freeborn and Mary Maude McFarland Veach. She is the daughter of Aulbry Leon and Fern Jewel McFarland West. She spent her younger years running barefoot and happy in the hills of Missouri. Attended Worthington grade school and Kirksville Junior High School in Missouri. Her teen years she lived in Topeka, Kansas. She attended East Indianola and Seaman Rural High School. After losing their home in the flood of 52 her family moved to Rockford, Illinois where she graduated from East High School. She went to work for Knox Motor Service where she met and married Junior Karl Kleffner of Rock Island Illinois on August 28th, 1955. Her only child Karlena Lynn Kleffner was born in 1957. In 1979 she met and married William Lawrence Dyer of Poplar Grove Illinois . They lived for years in New Mexico and Southern Missouri Ozarks until his death in January of 2004. Lee continued to live in Springfield Missouri until 2009 when Lee returned to Rockford Illinois. She was preceded in death by her parents, brother Larry Leon, wife Payom, of Chon Buri, Thailand, younger brother Clare Olen, wife Martha of Rockford. She is survived by her only sister Kerrill Kay Bolen, also of Rockford. Her daughter Karlena Lynn Kleffner Peckham, of Story City, Iowa, two granddaughters, Olivia Paige Peckham of Osceola, Iowa, Abby Schmitz of Roland, Iowa, and her two great granddaughters. She is survived by several cousins, nieces, and nephews . The body has been cremated and burial will be at a later date at Jimtown Cemetery near Worthington, Missouri, the place of her birth. To be absent from the body is to be present with the father.