Yvonne Keefer

The funeral services for Yvonne June Keefer, 74, Lawrence, KS, who died at her home on January 3rd, will be 11 a.m. Saturday, January 9th at First Southern Baptist Church in Lawrence.  There will be a visitation between 6 and 8 p.m. Friday, January 8th at the church.  Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at the Ula Cemetery in Westcliffe, CO.

Mrs. Keefer was born October 2nd, 1935 in Gotebo, OK, the daughter of Carl and Zelma Bond Kelsoe.

She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Home Economics from Oklahoma State University.

Mrs. Keefer was active in Southern Baptist work, serving as a campus minister first at Washburn University in 1967 and 1968, and then Kansas University from 1969 through 1982.  She briefly served as Minister of Education at First Southern Baptist Church of Lawrence in 1969.  She became Executive Director of Woman’s Missionary Union responsible for missions education for the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists in 1983, retiring in 2003.

She was a member of the First Southern Baptist Church of Lawrence and was an associate member of the First Baptist Church of Westcliffe, CO.  She was a member of HZ Chapter of PEO Sisterhood.  During the 70’s and 80’s she served as a Police Chaplain to the Lawrence Police Department.  She also served on numerous national boards of the Woman’s Missionary Union of Southern Baptists.

She married Jim Keefer on June 8, 1955 in Oklahoma City, OK.  He survives of the home.  She and her husband lived part-time in Westcliffe, CO where she served as a road commissioner in Tanglewood Acres, an incorporated community.

Other survivors include two sons, Steve Keefer of Las Animas, CO and Brian Keefer of Tampa, FL, a sister, Jean Denton of Oklahoma City, OK, and four grandchildren.

The family suggests memorials in her name to the Webster Conference Center Elevator Fund, the First Southern Baptist Church in Lawrence, or the building fund of the First Baptist Church of Westcliffe, and may be sent in care of the Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence.