Leslie Lee ZumBrunnen

Leslie Lee ZumBrunnen

Funeral services for Leslie Lee ZumBrunnen, 88, were Jan. 13, 1997, at the Bader Funeral Home in Lusk with the Rev. Mark Lohr officiating. Burial followed in the Lusk Cemetery. Memorials are to the Niobrara County 4-H Council or to the Niobrara County Historical Society.

He died Jan. 9, 1997, at Community Hospital in Torrington.

He was born April 22, 1908, at the home of his parents, Roy and Bama ZumBrunnen, in Kirtley. At the time, the area was called Pleasant Ridge. He grew up there and attended the local grade school. He then attended one year of high school in Lusk. Due to the oil boom and housing shortage, he attended his remaining high school years in Harrison, Neb., graduating in 1926.

He then attended Teacher's College in Grand Island, Neb., for one year. He enrolled in Kearney State Teacher's College in Kearney, Neb., which is now known as the University of Nebraska.

He graduated from there in 1932. He began teaching school in the Kirtley area and then moved to northern Niobrara County, where he taught high school math and grade school pupils.

He played football in high school and was a lover of all sports.

Following his teaching career, he was an Angus cattle breeder and rancher for 58 years.

He married Olive A. Hanson of Roxson, which was located in northern Niobrara County, in February of 1938. She was a teacher also, having taught in Weston and Niobrara counties.

To them were born one daughter, Katherine Celia, who married Larry McDaniel of Lance Creek, and one son, Melvin Leslie, who married Lola Horton of Otto.

He was a member of the Niobrara County Farm Bureau and the Niobrara County Historical Society. He was a long-time leader in 4-H, having received a silver plate in recognition of 35 years of serving as a leader of the Fairview 4-H Club. He also spent many summers at Douglas during the state fair as a chaperone to the boys from Wyoming.

He was an original member and helped to organize the Niobrara County Farm Bureau. He served as president of the Southeast District Farm Bureau Board of directors. He also served on the board of directors for the Mountain West Farm Bureau Insurance Company. And he also had served as a director of the Niobrara County Farm Bureau.

He served as the Niobrara County Representative in the State Legislature from 1967 to 1977.

He enjoyed those years, and served as chairman of the appropriations committee.

He was instrumental as a state legislator in getting the Lusk National Guard Armory donated to the Niobrara Historical Society, of which he served as treasurer.

Survivors include his wife, Olive, of the family ranch north of Lusk; son Melvin, of Lusk; daughter Katherine McDaniel of Littleton, Colo.; grandchildren Mardee McDaniel Aanonsen and her husband, Michael, of Laramie, Leslie ZumBrunnen and his wife, Linda, of Austin, Texas, Julie McDaniel Branting and her husband of Thornton, Colo., Theresa ZumBrunnen Whitman and her husband, Scott, of Minneapolis, Minn., Cadet Second Class Clinton ZumBrunnen of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Jason ZumBrunnen in his second year at the University of Wyoming in Laramie; and great-grandchildren Meghan and Missy Aanonson of Laramie.

Bader Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

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