Ramona Lee Moore

Born June 3rd, 1928 to parents Ambrose and Mildred Souther, Ramona grew up in Iconium, MO. She graduated from Osceola High School in 1946. Following a summer of college in Warrensburg, she was hired to teach at a one-room school house where building a fire in the pot-bellied stove was the first order of business on cold school days. She married Dale Eugene Moore in May 1946 who had joined the U.S. Army in January of 1945 after persuading the principal to graduate him prior to the end of his senior year in high school. Following Dale’s military service, the couple moved to Kansas City, KS in 1948 and eventually into a house in Pleasant Valley that Dale had built for her between June of 1959 and June of 1960.

She became a proud member of Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in 1960 where she taught for many years in Sunday School. She was active in P.T.A. when rearing her children and was a long-time member of the Red Hat Society. Her additional volunteer work included Red Cross blood drives, teaching in 4-H, Girl Scouts, and the Pleasant Valley Fireman’s Women’s Auxiliary.

Ramona read the paper every morning with her coffee, a habit learned from her father, a World War I veteran. She described herself “as bossy, but not too much”, a trait acquired from her mother.

Ramona and her husband Dale hosted an AFS student from Japan in the 1980-1981 school year. Indeed, they often housed young relatives, friends of their children or just about anyone else in need of a place to live for weeks or months at a time.

She loved to travel and had likely visited most all U.S. states at one time or another, plus Europe, the Middle East and Japan. During a trip by herself to the Kasbah in Marrakesh, Morocco she was wooed with tea by an old gentleman into purchasing a small, handmade rug with the promise that it would be shipped to her. Several months later, it actually arrived much to her delight.

She drove a school bus for 25 years in the North Kansas City School District, claiming she retired when she could no longer tolerate the middle school girls. She was an excellent seamstress and an outstanding cook whose blackberry cobbler made grown men swoon.

Ramona was a beauty and loved to dress up. She would happily parade down her home’s hallway on Christmas morning’s wearing each new outfit she had received. She regretted the year she had to cease wearing high heels because of how great they made her legs look.

Most importantly, she was devoted to her five children, attributing her longevity to the fact that as their mother, they remained a work in progress.

Ramona was preceded in death by her husband Dale in 1985, her son Eric Moore in 2024, her brother Ambrose (Barney) Souther in 2011, her sister Patricia Lycan in 2018, and her long-time companion Roy Loftin in 2015.

She leaves her son Randell Moore, her son Kevin Moore and his wife Nicole, Eric’s wife Judith, her son Matthew Moore and his wife Jill, and her daughter Lisa Moore. In addition: 22 grandchildren and grandspouses, plus fifteen great grandchildren, and her cat Phoebe.

Visitation will be held at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church at 11:00 am Saturday, September 12th. The funeral service will follow at Noon. The church address is 1600 Rte. 291, Liberty, MO. Burial will immediately follow the service at Newcomer’s White Chapel Cemetery, 6600 NE Antioch Rd., Gladstone, MO.