Leona F. (Rucksdaeschel) Feistner was born Jan. 5, 1937, in Gresham, to William and Dorothea (Fehlhafer) Rucksdaeschel, and passed away Dec. 17, 2022, at the age of 85, in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
Leona grew up in Waco and attended St. John Lutheran School. After graduation, she worked as a secretary in York and then in Lincoln. She met the love of her life, Gary L. Jacobs, at the Pla Mor Ballroom in Lincoln, where he was attending UNL on an ROTC scholarship and majoring in psychology. They were married July 4, 1959, in Lincoln. Following graduation, Gary entered the Air Force as an officer and Leona moved around the country with him to multiple duty stations for the next six years, with their final posting to the SAC AFB in Topeka, Kansas.
Leona and Gary were unable to have children and adopted their daughter, Christine (Jacobs) Mermilliod, in June 1964. Gary passed away in April of 1965 in Incirlik, Turkey, in a USAF plane crash, leaving Leona a young widow to raise their daughter alone.
Leona moved to Bellevue, where she worked as a secretary at Offut AFB. In 1969, she married her second husband, Cedric Daehling, and moved to Seward, where she and Cedric bought and ran a service station. She was widowed again when Cedric passed away in January 1980.
After his death, she sold the service station and worked at Pamida, first on the floor and later in the office. She later worked for Leroy Dinslage at the pharmacy at Pamida and later, the Pac N Save pharmacy in Seward, until she retired.
She met her third husband, Walter Feistner, via a newspaper pen-pal program. They married in Las Vegas in October 1994. Leona had several very happy years with Walt until his death from cancer in November of 1998.
Leona was an animal lover and had many, many beloved pets over the years. She loved football (Go Big Red!) and baseball (she was converted to a Cubs fan in her later years) and watched them every chance she got. She also loved cooking and baking, reading, crochet and knitting, gardening and watching her cooking shows.
Leona converted to Catholicism to marry Gary, but went back to the Lutheran church after his death. She attended St. John’s Lutheran (Missouri Synod) in Seward for many years, as well as Our Redeemer Lutheran (Missouri Synod) in Staplehurst. Eventually, she moved to Faith Lutheran (ELCA) in Seward. She remained there until she moved to Oregon in 2014 to be near her daughter and son-in-law. In Oregon, she lived at Fairlawn Village, an ELCA-affiliated senior community, where she attended services until her move to New Mexico in November 2022.
Leona contracted Covid in May of 2022, and never fully recovered. Her illness was followed by a series of falls and other health conditions which convinced her to move to New Mexico to be near her daughter and son-in-law, who had relocated in June. She moved in late November and was able to spend a week with Christine and Jeffrey before being admitted to the hospital with sepsis. She spent three weeks at UNM Sandoval before succumbing to the infection and other significant health issues on Dec. 17, 2022.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Willie (1973) and Dorothea (2003) Rucksdaeschel; husbands, Gary Jacobs (1965), Cedric Daehling (1980) and Walt Feistner (1998); brothers, Clifford (1976) and Lester (1993), and Lester’s wife, Joyce (2021).
She is survived by her daughter, Christine Mermilliod, and son-in-law, Jeffrey Mermilliod of Corrales, New Mexico; niece, Pat Olson (Bruce), Waco; and nephews, John and Scott Rucksdaeschel, Kansas; her dear friends, Mike and Jenny Hammond and their children, Parker and Tyler, Seward; her ex-son-in-law, John Bollman; numerous great- and great- great-nieces and nephews; her beloved cat, Rosie; and many other relatives and friends in Nebraska and Oregon.
A memorial service will be Saturday, Jan. 14, at 1 p.m. at Zabka-Perdue Funeral Home in Seward with inurnment at the Seward Cemetery. Memorial contributions are suggested to SPCA or a local shelter. Arrangements by Zabka-Perdue Funeral Home.
