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Leonard Matthew Heiderscheit, 98, of New Albin, IA, passed away on Saturday, May 5, 2018, at Thornton Manor in Lansing, IA. \u00a0He was born to John and Florence Heiderscheit on June 10, 1919, in Holy Cross, IA.<\/p>\nLeonard Matthew Heiderscheit, 98, of New Albin, IA, passed away on Saturday, May 5, 2018, at Thornton Manor in Lansing, IA. \u00a0He was born to John and Florence Heiderscheit on June 10, 1919, in Holy Cross, IA.<\/p>\n
Leonard lived in Holy Cross until 1941 when he and his brother Charles entered the United States Army. \u00a0Leonard served in the Aleutian Islands during World War ll and received the Purple Heart for wounds received at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. \u00a0He participated in the liberation of Attu and Kiska, two American islands occupied by the Japanese.\u00a0 Charles was killed in action in Okinawa. \u00a0Leonard was a longtime member of the Kenneth Casey VFW Post #5603 of New Albin.<\/p>\n
Leonard and his brother Leo founded New Albin Auto Sales, a Chrysler\/Plymouth dealership and later purchased a Dodge dealership, Prairie Auto Sales Inc., in Prairie Du Chien, WI. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Leonard, not being one to retire, then operated L&M Gas & Go with his son Mark.\u00a0 At 94, he was still pumping gas.\u00a0\u00a0 Leonard would have to be described as an old fashioned businessman, who was more concerned with service to the public than profit. \u00a0His civic contributions included funding and, with the help of others, operating an ambulance service in New Albin from the late fifties until the middle sixties. Ambulance services were gratuitous at that time.\u00a0 He served as a volunteer New Albin firefighter. \u00a0Serving as both a school board member and board president, Leonard was a strong supporter of the former St. George High School.\u00a0 He ensured bus transportation for New Albin students by maintaining and, for a time, personally driving the bus.\u00a0 Compensation for these services was largely waived. \u00a0In addition, he was recognized by Kee High School for his efforts over the years in helping it have an affordable drivers\u2019 education program as well as a fleet of cars used for other school purposes.<\/p>\n
He married Phyllis Imhoff on June 14, 1948. \u00a0They shared over 61 years together and were blessed with nine children. \u00a0Leonard\u2019s sense of humor was reflected in his witty sayings and teasing.\u00a0 If he teased you, you were special to him! \u00a0He lived his faith, loved his family, and enjoyed his friends!<\/p>\n
He is survived by nine loving children and nineteen grandchildren: \u00a0Mike and Melinda (Alecia, Mollie, and Emilie) of Prior, OK, Richard and BeBe of La Crescent, MN, Mary and Alan (Elise and Amy) of Lake City, MN, Julie and Gene (Courtney, McKenze, Gabe, and Quin) of La Crescent, MN, Mark of New Albin, IA, Terry and Kristi (Tessie, Luka, and Noel) of Rochester,MN, Chris and Patty (Evan, Julia, and Colin) of Onalaska, WI, Tim and Jill (Coady and Matt) of New Albin, IA, and Patrick and Janet (Jon and Ellie) of Lansing, IA., as well as fifteen great grandchildren. \u00a0Also surviving are two sisters, Rosemary Winner and Hazel Schend, a sister-in-law Patricia Curran, many special nieces and nephews, and countless friends.<\/p>\n
He was preceded in death by his wife Phyllis; his parents; his brothers, John, Harold, Frank, Charles, and Leo; his sisters Agnes Klaas, Dorothy Crawford, Virginia Saylor, Julie Simon, Janette Dunne, Clara Dolter, and Norma Wagner and their respective spouses as well as his Imhoff in-laws.<\/p>\n
A special thank you to his \u201cangel\u201d home-care provider\/sparring partner, Keri Becker for the understanding, friendship, loving care, and many smiles she gave Leonard. \u00a0Many thanks to the Thornton Manor staff who made Leonard a \u201chome away from home\u201d by providing professional care in a kindly, respectful, and compassionate manner.<\/p>\n
Visitation will be held from 4-8 PM on Friday, May 11 with a rosary at 4 PM at the New Albin Community Center. \u00a0Visitation will also be held one hour before the funeral mass at the church. Memorial Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 AM at St. Joseph Catholic Church in New Albin with the celebrant, Father John Moser. \u00a0Burial will follow in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery.<\/p>\n
Thornburg-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service, Lansing, Iowa is helping the family with the arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leonard Matthew Heiderscheit, 98, of New Albin, IA, passed away on Saturday, May 5, 2018, at Thornton Manor in Lansing, IA. \u00a0He was born to John and Florence Heiderscheit on June 10, 1919, in Holy Cross, IA. Leonard lived in Holy Cross until 1941 when he and his brother Charles entered the United States Army. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[440],"class_list":["post-5115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-heiderscheidt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5115"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5154,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115\/revisions\/5154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}