Leona Mae Knorr

Leona Mae (McDonald) Knorr passed away October 14, 2026 at Spurgeon Manor in Dallas Center. A celebration of life will be 11 a.m. Friday, October 30, 2026 with visitation from 10 a.m. until the time of the service at McLaren’s Resthaven Chapel. Burial will immediately follow at Highland Memory Gardens in Des Moines.

She was born the day after Christmas in 1926 to Arthur Earl and Kristiann "Anna" (Carlson) McDonald in Irwin, IA. She was the youngest of four children. After she graduated from Irwin Consolidated School in May 1944, she moved to Des Moines to attend AIB (American Institute of Business). While there, Leona met John Knorr, a serviceman home from the Navy, at a dance. They were married June 20, 1947. Three years later, Leona and John bought two acres in Clive and built their first home. They had four children: Thomas John, Michael John, Beth Ann, and Allison Ann. In the 1980s with the help of son Mike, they constructed a log cabin at Lake Panorama in Panora, Iowa, which she loved sharing with family and friends.

Leona was a member of Windsor United Methodist Church (since 1953), where she sang in the choir, played the bells, and earned the name "Grama Cookie” for personalizing gingerbread cookies. She also belonged to the Clive Good Idea Club (since 1951), the Des Moines Women's Club at Hoyt Sherman Place (from 1998), and was a Life Member of the Clive Historical Society.

Leona had many talents. She decorated cakes, sewed clothes for humans and Barbie dolls, bowled, gardened, sold award-winning levels of Beeline fashions, made endless loaves of zucchini bread, played golf, and loved giving Pocket Angels and Pillow Pals as gifts. She enjoyed teaching and winning the card game Skip-Bo, giving her Good Idea Club friends and the Wild Windsor Women pontoon boat rides, collecting ducks and gingerbread items, entertaining, and traveling. In 2018 she captured her life’s memories in a StoryWorth book that is now a treasure to her family.

She is survived by her children, Michael Knorr, Beth Morris, and Allison Knorr; grandchildren, Heather Roberts, Tina Jarboe, Andrew Knorr, Avery Metcalf, and Sam Goughnour; step granddaughter, Katie Layden; great-grandchildren, Braeden, Madison, and Ashlynn Roberts, Bailey and Tatum Jarboe, and Kennedy and Everly Knorr; step-great-grandchildren, Morris, Mylo, and Monroe Layden; her great-great-granddaughter, Iris Johnson; and nieces, Martha Lee Butterfield and Mary Ann McDonald. She was preceded in death by her parents; in-laws; sister, Alice Ann Rice; brothers, Ward and Robert McDonald; husband, John; and son, Tom Knorr.

The family wishes to thank the staff of Spurgeon Manor Memory Care for the kind and compassionate care they gave their mother during her time in Eby.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Spurgeon Senior Community, Des Moines Women’s Club, or Hoyt Sherman Place.