Funeral Services for Verlea A. Drefke, 74, Norfolk, will be 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, July 11, 2018 at Christ Lutheran Church in Norfolk. Reverend Chip Winter will officiate. Burial will be at New Lutheran Cemetery in Norfolk.
Visitation will be 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Home for Funerals, 1203 W. Norfolk Avenue. She passed away Friday, July 6, 2018 at Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk. Verlea Amanda was born March 22, 1944 to her parents Albert and Amanda (Tibken) Schmidt in rural Massena, IA.
She was baptized and confirmed at the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wiota, IA. She attended Massena Elementary School and graduated from Cumberland-Massena High School in 1962. After working in Omaha for several years, Verlea attended Concordia Teachers College, now Concordia University, in Seward, NE, graduating in 1969.
Her first teaching position was at Lutheran Interparish School in Williamsburg, IA where she taught 3rd grade and also met a fellow teacher, Gary Drefke. They were married at First Lutheran Church in Wiota, IA on August 9, 1970. After teaching for several years, she became the volunteer coordinator for the LIS Library for several years and then became an assistant librarian at Williamsburg, IA and later at the Amana Library.
She was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Conroy, IA, where the couple lived until 1995. Verlea sang in the church choir, taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, and was involved with various congregational organizations as well as the church library. From 1995 to 1997, she helped at Zion St. John Lutheran School south of Wisner, NE, where Gary was teaching.
From 1998 until present, she was a member of Christ Lutheran Church in Norfolk, where for a number of years she helped teach Sunday School. She enjoyed decorating the home, making special occasion plaques, and doing bulletin boards in Gary’s classrooms. Verlea is survived by her husband, Gary, and nieces and nephews from Iowa.
She was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers Virgil and Varel Schmidt, and sister Virginia Kuesel. Memorials may be given to Christ Lutheran School or Church in Norfolk, Lutheran Interparish School in Williamsburg, IA or the First Lutheran Church in Wiota, IA. There’s still time to send flowers to the Visitation at the Home for Funerals from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM on July 10, 2018.
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