Winona Leben
Winona (Covert) Leben died peacefully on July 3, 2021, at the Regent Park nursing facility in Holyoke. She was born Sept. 26, 1931, at the Lorena Olmstead Maternity Home in Holyoke to Loyd William and Virdie M. (Devlin) Covert.
She and her three sisters were raised on the family farm next to the Colorado/Nebraska state line east of Holyoke. She graduated from Phillips County High School in Holyoke in 1950.
On Dec. 10, 1954, she was united in marriage to Gordon Leben at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Amherst. They had four children: Les, Robert, Nunzy and Kevin.
Gordon and Winona farmed and raised their family in and around Amherst. They spent several years in Boulder, which allowed Gordon to complete his teaching degree while they farmed during summer breaks.
In 1969, they purchased a farm 2 1/4 miles east of Amherst where they resided for nearly 50 years. Winona’s favorite pastimes on the farm were baking, gardening, sewing, knitting and birding.
In 2015, Winona’s health issues required her to move into Regent Park. In 2017, Gordon moved into Carriage House in order to live in the same facility as Winona. For three years they lived in separate wings of the care facility and were very happy to be “apart but together.” Their favorite activities were moving and grooving exercise class, frequent drives around the countryside and attending Sunday afternoon worship services at the Carriage House.
When COVID-19 was detected in the facility in October 2020, Gordon was allowed to move into Winona’s room in the nursing wing before the lockdown. They shared their last few weeks together before Gordon died from COVID-19 on Nov. 16, 2020, at Melissa Memorial Hospital in Holyoke. Less than eight months later, Winona passed away in her room at Regent Park and was again reunited with Gordon.
Winona was preceded in death by her parents, Loyd and Virdie; her husband, Gordon; her sisters and their husbands, Bette and Frank Linnenbrink and Virginia and Wayne Leben.
She will be greatly missed by her children: son, Les Leben; son, Robert Leben and wife Megan, and grandsons Lukas, Markus and Justus; daughter, Nunzy Leben Alves and husband Bruce, granddaughter Brianna Allen and husband Jeff, and grandson Alston; son, Kevin Leben and wife Dawn, and grandsons Noah, Shea, Bryson, Orion and Treston, and granddaughters Ciannan, Cambria and Capri; sister, Dola Covert-Blake; and sister-in-law, Karen Stoner and her husband, Dale, along with many other relatives and friends.
A memorial service will be held Friday, July 16, at 1:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Amherst. Inurnment will follow at the Amherst Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Winona may be made to bethesdalc.org/get-involved/donate or to a charity of your choice in her name.
Cards and letters may also be sent to the Leben Family, P.O. Box 69, Amherst, CO 80721. Please make donation checks payable to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church with “Winona Leben Memorial” in the memo. All funds received will be donated to Bethesda Lutheran Communities.