Fern Elizabeth (Walker) Taffner

Fern Elizabeth (Walker) Taffner, 94, went to her Heavenly Home Aug. 9, 2016, at the Cedar County Memorial Hospital in El Dorado Springs, Mo. Fern was born at home in Aaron, Mo., Bates County, Feb. 9, 1922, to Louis and Nellie Mae (Thornburg) Walker.

She attended school at McKinley School and spent her childhood in the Creighton and Urich, Mo., area. She married Carl Asey Taffner on Oct. 28, 1939, in Carthage, Mo., and the young couple moved to rural Barton County near Jasper, Mo. They celebrated their 50th anniversary before Carl's passing on March 19, 1990.

Fern enjoyed her life on the farm where she spent more than 70 years. She loved gardening and canning and was blessed with a green thumb as was evident by her house plants and prized African Violets which she kept growing all through her years in the farm house that she never quit calling "home." She moved to Spring Village in Nevada five years ago and enjoyed the friends and staff she met there. She loved working in her yard, even into her mid-80s, and filled it with many beautiful flowerbeds, until her health would no longer allow it. Her family enjoyed many Sunday and holiday meals around her dining room table and the children passing through the kitchen were blessed by a few of her "no-bake" peanut butter oatmeal cookies, always made to perfection. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren will always hold this memory dear. She shared her recipe and taught her son-in-law, Joe, the secrets of her no-bakes, so the tradition will live on.

Fern was of the Methodist faith and attended the Boston Methodist Church until it's closing. For the last 25 years she enjoyed attending Anchor Fellowship in Nevada and Sheldon Baptist Church. She considered both to be church family. Fern was never hesitant about passing along her belief in her Lord Jesus Christ and always encouraging and reminding her family and friends with her familiar phrase, "Don't forget to say your prayers." Her prayers for all will be greatly missed. Her family was a source of great joy. She especially treasured the time spent with the great grandchildren.

Fern was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Carl Asey Taffner; a son, Lester Carl Taffner; her great-granddaughter, Hannah RoseMarie Lamb (in 2013); brothers, Lester Carl "Bud" and Gerald Dean Walker; a sister, Katherine "Kay" Faye McDonald; an infant sister, Josephine Eleanor Walker; and a special niece, Deborah Fern Weinstein (McDonald).

She is survived by her son, Jerry Taffner and wife, Karen, of Lamar; a daughter, Peggy Jo Gilkey and husband, Joe, of Nevada, Mo.; a daughter-in-law, Carolyn M. Taffner; grandchildren, Jerod Lamb and wife, Lisha Jo, of Sheldon, Angie Schlichting and husband, Matthew, of Lamar, and Joshua Lamb and wife, Abbey, of Sheldon; nine great-grandchildren, Logan Elizabeth, Bryce Aric, and Uric Asey Lamb, Aiden Daniel (A.D.) Ellifrits, Megan Olivia and Dalton Reid Schlichting and Zavery Thayne, Deborah Jolee and Mariam Elizabeth Lamb; and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

The funeral service was held yesterday, at 1 p.m., at Konantz Warden Funeral Home, Lamar, Mo. In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial gifts be given to the Hannah Lamb Memorial Scholarship fund, in care of the funeral home.