LaValley, Delores Aelmore
Our Mama, Delores Jean Aelmore LaValley, age 90, passed away quietly in her own bedroom, on her favorite day of the week, Sunday, at 8 a.m., August 18, 2024. No longer confined to the weaknesses of congestive heart failure, she was resurrected in His Spirit, fully welcomed into His Presence…and without having to get all dressed up for her Sunday meeting. Request granted, and daughter, Sharon with her, during her passing.
Delores was born January 8, 1934, in central Kansas, to her late daddy, Oscar Alvin Roosevelt Aelmore (farmer and barber), and to her late mama, Beulah Vera Hoffman Aelmore (our grandma who always sang hymns in the kitchen while cooking).
Delores was preceded in death by her son, Timothy Samuel LaValley (in year 2000), and by her husband James Francis LaValley (in year 2018). Also preceding her were her sister, LaVonne Johnson, and her brother, Stanley Aelmore.
She is survived by her daughter, Sharon Christine LaValley Tegtmeier (Virginia), with five grandchildren, April, Valerie, Ethan, Justin, and Sarah (along with their five spouses, and their father Gary Chester Tegtmeier), and with ten great- grandchildren, Delores, having met the eleventh grandchild in heaven by now, we are certain, and by her son, Andrew Lee LaValley, his wife, Cecilia, with two grandchildren, Jasmine and Timothy. Many other Midwest cousins and extended family are recognized, surviving.
Mama was a hard-working girl who grew up in the Depression years. She remembered sitting in the rumble seat of her uncle’s Model A, when the family drove out to California to work during two peach harvests, when she was 4 and 5 years old. She was driving the tractor at age 12 and riding her horse on the farm. At age 13, she moved outside her family home, into “town”, to live and work hard, taking care of another family, in order to be able to continue going to school.
Delores, following high school, attended secretarial school and Bible college in Minnesota, graduating Central Bible College (now Evangel) in Springfield, Missouri, in 1960, where she met and married our dad in the summer, 1960. She was a kind- hearted mother, served well as pastor’s wife, encouraging women in The Lord, in particular those who were abused, and in the grips of addiction. Moves took our family throughout Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, and then to Westchester, NY. A stint in Louisiana, but the place she called home was in the Pulaski, Virginia, area, in her little countryside acreage the last 27 years. I, Sharon, asked her, “Do you remember the most beautiful place you’ve ever been?” Though non-verbal by this time, she responded with her open right hand, presenting to me the pasture across the road, Draper Mountain in the distance. It is quiet and beautiful!
A graveside gathering of closest friends, some family, and her two favorite pastors honored her life, on September 1, 2024, 1 p.m., at Draper Valley Pentecostal Church cemetery. Special thanks extend to Gentiva Hospice nurses for their gentle care of us both, to close friends for their support in creative and kind ways, to family reaching out, both from across the country and those able to visit to share in her home-going, and to Grubb Funeral Home, which took tender care of arrangements, and to the generosity of friends, cousins and aunt, with headstone engraving, floral stands provided by sister-in-law and family, and Draper Valley Church.
Sharon has memories of coming into the living room, sleepy-eyed, throughout childhood and teen years, at each day’s beginning…to see Mama sitting in her rocking chair, coffee in hand, and open Bible in her lap, having her quiet time with The Lord. I knew that she knew Him. Her faith was in His faithfulness. Her prayer over us kids, before school every day, was, “Lord, bless them and make them a blessing”. May your prayers live on, Mama. We love you always!
Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family at www.grubbfuneralhome.com
Grubb Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements
