Buhler, Leucile Genevieve Steiner (1906-2006)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2006 May 8 p. 11

Birth date: 1906 Sep 21

text of obituary:

LEUCILE E. BUHLER

Leucile Genevieve (Steiner) Buhler, 99, of Bluffton, Ohio, died April 15, 2006. Born Sept. 21, 1906, she was the oldest graduate of Bluffton High School and the oldest member of First Mennonite Church in Bluffton.

She married Gerhard Buhler. He preceded her in death in 1981.

She served on the program committee of the General Conference Mennonite Church and on the literature committee for many years. She and Gerhard served two summers in voluntary service, working in teenage work camps, at Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., and also at Canadian Bible College, Winnipeg, Man.

During their 11 years in Freeman, S.D., they took time for a year of voluntary service under Mennonite Central Committee at Saints Junior College, Lexington, Miss. She worked in Saints Junior College Library and taught English in the Migrant Farmers Program and the Head Start Program. Together she and Gerhard did bridge-building between Caucasians and African Americans. Later while serving in voluntary service in Cincinnati, Ohio, she worked at Cokesbury Book Store and taught in the Laubach Reading Program. One summer they served as leaders of a college-age European work-study group, sponsored by Mennonite and affiliated colleges. After their retirement and move back to Bluffton, they volunteered to teach inmates at Lima State Hospital. She also volunteered at the Mennonite Central Committee Et Cetera Shop.

Survivors include her children, Genevieve Fast and her husband, Peter, of Fresno, Calif.; Joanne Voth and her husband, Leland, of Harrisonburg, Va.; daughter-in-law Inez Buhler of San Gabriel, Calif.; and Ruth Graber and her husband, Kenneth, of Sierra Vista, Ariz.; 11 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Gerhard; a son, Gerhard Samuel; and a grandson, Timothy Andrew Suter.

Her funeral was held at First Mennonite Church.