Leeta L. Bode

Leeta Leone Davis Bode left this world for her heavenly home on Thursday, October 6, 2005. Leeta came into this world on July 27, 1904, in Hancock, WI, the tenth of eleven children born to Ernest and Florence (Kingsley) Davis. She was schooled in WI, and as a young woman attended Valley City State Teachers College. She then taught in rural central North Dakota schools for nine years, in the days when teachers arrived at dawn to fire up the potbellied stove, broke the sheet of ice on the common water bucket, taught all twelve grades, and swept the floors at the end of the day.
In her late twenties, Leeta met and married Walter Bode in Valley City, ND. Shortly before they were married on November 25, 1932, both Leeta and Walter came to know the personal saving grace of Jesus Christ. The couple's first home was in Pillsbury, ND. They later moved into Valley City, where they raised their family. Following Walter's retirement in 1961, the couple moved to Philomath, then Corvallis, then Eugene, all in Oregon. At the age of 62, Leeta and her 64-year-old sister, Edna McConoughey, hiked the 69-mile Oregon Skyline Trail and became a feature article in the local paper there. In 1984, when Walter's health began to fail, the couple returned to the Midwest to be near family. When her husband of 54 years passed away in 1986, Leeta continued to live in their high-rise apartment in Moorhead, but left it often to travel extensively. Between 1980 and 1995, she enjoyed two trips to Russia as a short-term missionary, two trips to the Holy Land, two trips to her husband's native Germany - one with Walter and one with great-granddaughter, Stephanie, with a side trip to Switzerland to vacation with granddaughter, Elizabeth, in the USAF in Germany, and a visit to Colombia, South America. On her 90th birthday, she toured the skies above Moorhead in a hot air balloon - an experience she had longed for since she first caught sight of one at the Wisconsin State Fair as a child. In 2002, when she was nearly 99, Leeta moved from her apartment into Eventide Assisted Living which was her home until she was three months past her 100th birthday, when the Viking Manor in Ulen became her home. Leeta was an active and enthusiastic woman, who was never bored with life, an avid reader with a sharp wit, always curious and always ready and willing for adventure. Now she is on the greatest adventure of all!
Left behind to miss her, but waiting to see her again are her six children: David (Bonnie), Deloris Selland (Bryan), Hazel Hareland (Dr. Gary), Glenn (Pat), Arvid (Darlyne) and Ruthie Bode. She also leaves grandchildren: Ronald Bode, Rollin Bode, Chikita McGarrah (Tim), Aric Hareland, Judy Stinnett, James Berg, Vicky Jackson (Michael), Lori Beito (Kean), Lisa Vatnsdal, Todd Bode, Elizabeth Holen (Stacie Loegering), Julie Gates (Bryan), Dr. Niki Dietz, Lori Bode, Bradley Bode (Polly), Tami Stamos (David), and granddaughter-in-law, Chandra Hanke; and great-grandchildren, Stephanie, Joshua, Jamie, Brian, Garrett, Gavinn, Stephanie, Jillian, Judah, Ben, Sam, Grant, Chase, Matthew, Samantha, Matthew and Wesley. She leaves behind, for now, a host of family and friends who cherished her uniqueness and are comforted by knowing that she is in her heavenly home, reunited with Walter, her brothers and sisters, granddaughter, Gretchen Hareland, and grandson, Thad Holen. Special thanks from her family to the professional and compassionate caregivers of Viking Manor who became like another family to her. Bon Voyage, Mother!
Funeral: Monday, Oct. 10, 2005, at 10 AM, in Meadowridge Bible Chapel, West Fargo, ND.
Visitation: Sunday, Oct. 9, 2005, from 5 - 8 PM, with a prayer service at 8 PM, in Korsmo Funeral Chapel, Moorhead, MN.
Burial: Monday, Oct. 10, 2005, at 2:30 PM, in Memory Gardens, Valley City, ND.