Leila M. Grout

Leila Mae Brezina was born in Esbon, Kansas, on July 3, 1930, to Frank and Clara Brezina. Leila’s mother, born Clara Hancock, was a descendent of a long lineage of Colonial Americans and frontier settlers that ventured west by covered wagon from Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. A few of her Hancock ancestors had documented interactions with historical figures such as Daniel Boone, Abraham Lincoln, and Lewis & Clark. A hint of that southern heritage made its way subtly into Leila’s lifelong accent, although it got a bit tempered later in life when she was surrounded by Minnesotans and Canadians.

Leila’s father was a second-generation immigrant from Southern Bohemia (present day Czechia), who met her mother when she was a schoolteacher and he was a member of the Esbon school board. Before they met he served as a medic with the American forces in France near the end of World War 1. By all accounts he was a kind and hard-working farmer who was very involved as a leader in the community. Unfortunately Frank passed away suddenly at age 38 when Leila was only 2 years old so she and her 4-month old baby brother Lyle never knew their father.

Afterwards, Leila’s mother left her teaching role, worked for the postal service and eventually opened “Brezina’s”, a small town grocery store that served Esbon towards the end of the Great Depression and during the entirety of World War 2, often allowing flexible accounts for hard pressed members of the community during those lean years.

As Leila got older she worked in the store after school to help her widowed mother make ends meet. She was surrounded there and elsewhere by ten aunts and uncles, her mother’s siblings, a few of whom served overseas during World War 2, surviving several harrowing events. Later Leila said those uncles were the positive male role models she needed as a fatherless girl.

When Leila was 15 she was at a youth church service and, feeling that she wasn’t right with God, confessed her sins and received forgiveness from Jesus. Shortly thereafter, while at Maranatha Bible camp in North Platte, Nebraska, she dedicated her whole life to wherever God would lead her.

Around this time her mother got remarried to Fred Fielder, a railroad foreman. Leila was initially wary of this new man in their lives but soon realized that Fred was a good and Godly man. Later she thanked God for him and described him as the only father she ever knew. Fred and Clara had a baby named Roger and Leila adored her half brother. Fred unfortunately died in 1954 when Roger was only eight-years old.

Leila was an honor student and involved in many activities at Esbon High School. She was a cheerleader, pep squad member, queen of the 1946 football team, queen of the 1948 basketball team and the valedictorian of her senior class in 1948. It was in high school that Leila become aware of a classmate named Wendell Grout. Rumor has it that he thought she was stuck up and she thought he talked too much.

So, when Wendell asked her to go to a party with him, she would only agree if he went to church with her first. He did and that night, during an altar call, he went forward and prayed a prayer of repentance for his sins and put his faith in Jesus to be his Savior and Lord.

The call of God on Wendell’s life came shortly after his first encounter with Jesus. The calling was to preach the word of God and to be an evangelist. Leila simultaneously followed her own calling as a fully committed and essential partner when she and Wendell fell in love and got married, August 26th, 1949.

She initially worked at Back To The Bible Broadcasting right out of high school followed by a semester at Kansas City Bible College (now Calvary University). She left college at age 20 to give birth to their first child, Claudia, embracing the role of wife and mother, while continuing her daily devout personal study of the Bible and her deep conviction in the intercession of prayer. She was often moved to tears at news of anyone else’s misfortune.

She would continuously and faithfully fulfill her maternal calling for the next 37 years as she brought four boys into the world as well. Daniel, Nathan, Philip and James. The five children were spread out just enough to ensure that Wendell and Leila would have teenagers in their home continuously for 24 straight years.

When they were invited to pastor a local church while Wendell was still in Bible College, the course of their life was decided. They pastored together at several churches, but most notably, nineteen years at Blue Ridge Bible Church in Kansas City, Missouri, five years at Lake Harriet Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and twenty years at First Alliance Church in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Their early years of ministry were lean and Leila drew on her previous life experiences in knowing how to stretch a budget while keeping her growing family well fed and clothed. She kept a tidy house and set a beautiful table often hosting visits from missionaries and conference ministers. She quietly made sure that her own personal needs were always placed last in service of others.

Leila played many different roles in those churches over the years, but perhaps her favorite was being a Sunday school teacher to 6th grade girls at First Alliance Church. She once said she enjoyed the 6th grade girls because they had not yet become 7th grade girls and were still delightful. She would also often be with Wendell in making his hospital calls and was a very active letter and card writer to friends, family members and missionaries. She eventually joined Wendell on a few of his numerous international conference ministry trips.

After becoming an empty nester one of her passion projects was archiving the photos and hand writing the genealogies of both sides of the family, past and present. She organized dozens of photo albums by year with handwritten details for almost every picture.

She loved her husband and their ever-expanding family very much. In their later years when pastoring churches was no longer their primary calling, Leila and Wendell prayed every day, by name, for each of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. They enjoyed daily walks together from their home in Loveland, Colorado and Leila especially enjoyed tending to her flowers and watching and feeding the variety of birds that visited and nested in the trees outside her windows. Through those windows she also reveled in her view of the Rocky Mountains, perhaps her favorite wonder of nature in all God’s creation. They often took out-of-town visitors to nearby Estes Park.

Leila survived cancer twice. Once when she was in her 50s and once in her 80s. The combination of her strong genes, some gifted physicians, and the healing hand of God, extended her life much longer than she expected, and she lived those extra years to the fullest. Leila’s sense of humor also became more evident as she aged, much to the delight of her kids and grandkids. She will be missed by all.

She is predeceased by her father, Frank Brezina, her mother, Clara Fielder, her stepfather Fred Fielder, her brother Lyle Brezina, and her first and only true love in this world, her husband Wendell Grout. They were married for 74 years before he passed early in 2024. She is survived by her youngest brother Roger Fielder (Jan), her children Claudia Grout, Daniel Grout (Delores), Nathan Grout (Marika), Philip Grout (Renae), and James Grout. She is also survived by 11 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.

A private family memorial service will be held graveside at a date in the future TBD.

Leila and Wendell made their wishes known for anyone wanting to honor their lives to consider giving financially to the Global Advance Fund of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada, or the Great Commission Fund of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in the U.S. This can be done using the links below.

https://thealliancecanada.ca/give/

https://secure.cmalliance.org/give/

Memories of Leila and words of condolence for her family are welcome at resthavencolorado.com.