Orill Bethene Rempel

Orill “Willie” Rempel celebrated her One Hundredth Birthday on May 9, 2014. She passed away August 18, 2014, having lived a fulfilled blessed life for a century.

Orill Bethene Miller was born on May 9, 1914, the only child of Leslie C. Miller and Ruby Housman of Bolckow, Missouri. Her large family of grandparents, many aunts, uncles and cousins were mainly farmers whose descendants immigrated to this country from Switzerland in the 1860’s. Some of the Miller clan settled in the Nebo Hills area of Clay County. Others traveled north to the community of Bolckow, which took its name from a railroad engineer. Orill spent her youth on the family farm there and became a lifelong member of the Bolckow United Methodist Church. Her father married Grace Pittsenbarger, after the death of Orill’s mother, Ruby, in 1917.

Orill graduated from Bolckow High School and later left Andrew County and ventured to Denver, Colorado where she received her nickname “Willie”. She met her future husband, and best friend, there and became Mrs. Herb Rempel on Christmas Day in 1939. They celebrated sixty-nine years of marriage before Herb passed in 2008.

The couple later settled in Herb’s home town of York, Nebraska where their daughter, Leslie was born. Willie, Herb and Leslie have been Liberty residents since 1956. Willie worked for the Liberty Public Schools and was employed at William Jewell College for 19 years. She retired at the age of 75. Her favorite places were her kitchen and her gardens. She took immense pleasure in preparing meals for others and baking cookies for her many special friends. She enjoyed the outdoors and looked forward to each season with eager anticipation. Surviving cancer at 75 and again at age 91 is a testament to her strong will and courage.

Orill “Willie” was a wise, gracious woman, and intelligent beyond her schooling. She was blessed with an abundance of good common sense and a ready sense of humor. She was cheerful and gay, like her flower gardens that she so lovingly tended. She was a loving daughter, caring wife, devoted mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and loyal friend. She will be deeply missed by daughter Leslie Petty, “son” Bill, grandson Steven, “granddaughter” Jennifer and precious great-grandchildren, Blake William and Erin Christine Petty. A special thanks to her friends and “family” at Liberty Terrace Healthcare for their devoted care and kindness to her.

I’d like the memory of me

To be a happy one,

I’d like to leave an afterglow

Of smiles when life is done.

Arrangements: Church-Archer-Pasley Funeral Home, Liberty, MO