Ehlmann, Laverne C.

Laverne Clara (Allersmeyer) Ehlmann
If you can read this tribute, you can thank talented and dedicated elementary teachers like Laverne Ehlmann for nurturing this lifelong skill. Laverne’s life journey ended on May 28, 2024, but she is very likely happily teaching, singing, and planting with God’s eternal assembly right now.

Laverne’s life started on July 31, 1937, on a family farm in Senate Grove, MO (Franklin County). She was the youngest of five children to Albert and Luella (Boedecker) Allersmeyer. Albert was a renowned antiques collector who supplied furnishings to homes in several Missouri State Parks (Gen. John J. Pershing and Mark Twain boyhood homes). Laverne was 11 years younger than her sister Marie, and her brothers Harold, Elmer, and Ralph were nearing the end of high school and beginning their service to their country. Laverne was educated in a one-room schoolhouse and attended the Immanuel United Methodist Church in Senate Grove. She later graduated from New Haven High School in May 1955.

In Fall 1955, she started classes at Southeast Missouri State College in Cape Girardeau, MO (SEMO was primarily known as a teacher’s college then). At the time, once she had completed more than 60 hours of course work, she was able to begin teaching. She started her career at the Antonia Elementary School in Jefferson County, MO. This would be the start of a 30-year career with Fox C-6 School District schools, which also included stops at Clyde Hamrick School near Otto, MO and Seckman Elementary School near Imperial, MO.

It was in those early days at Antonia where Laverne met a local farmer and part-time bus driver, Sherman Friedman. “He was the hardest working man I’d ever seen,” Laverne recalled once, noting his responsibilities to the farm, the school and the local volunteer fire department. They dated for a couple of years and then married on May 6, 1961, at the Emory United Methodist Church in New Haven, MO. They raised two children – Vickie and Steven – on the Friedman Family farm about a mile south of the Antonia junction at old Hwy. M and Old Lemay Ferry Road. They attended St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Otto, MO.

Laverne’s love of plants and gardening was nurtured through her work on the farm, with rows and rows on strawberries, tomatoes, pickles, green beans, and other assorted vegetables to manage. She was active on the farm up until Sherman’s passing of a sudden heart attack on June 17, 1993 – they were married 32 years.

Laverne taught several different grades over her time with Fox C-6 schools, but most of her career was spent teaching first-grade classes. She enjoyed group activities with her students where she taught them to “sound out the words” and correct pronunciations such as “it’s a li-brary, not a li-berry”. She believed that the fundamental reading skills taught in these early years was the foundation to lifelong learning success.

After her retirement in 1992, Laverne became a dedicated traveler, gardener, volunteer, and a member of St. Paul’s choir. She became a member of the Mehlville Garden Club in 1995 and the flower beds at her home in South St. Louis County were a source of pride. She was also active with the friends’ group for the Arnold Branch of the Jefferson County Library system. She married fellow St. Paul’s member Arlie Ehlmann at the church on Jan. 1, 1997. Along with their performances at the church, the couple were part of choirs that performed in Australia and at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis. Aside from choir, the couple traveled over all parts of the United States, Europe and Central America in their 27-year marriage. Some of their favorite trips were through the Elderhostel programs for seniors, which allowed participants to learn from local experts about the history, culture and natural environment of the places they visited.

Even as she battled dementia and other ailments her remaining months, Laverne would read out loud the signs at her memory care facility and the words on her care giver’s shirts. She also frequently liked to still use big words during visits, such as “espionage”, and she enjoyed when anyone brought homemade cookies to devour before, during, or after mealtimes.

Laverne is preceded in death by her mother and father; first husband Sherman, her brothers, Harold, Ralph, and Elmer Allersmeyer; her sister and brother-in-law, Marie and Dwight Nelson, her sisters-in-law, Annie Allersmeyer, Essie Allersmeyer and Elfrieda Allersmeyer. Along with Arlie and many nieces and nephews, her survivors include daughter Vickie, and son-in-law Greg Dohack of Barnhart, MO; son Steve Friedman and wife Marianne, grandchildren Katherine and William, all of Columbia, MO; Arlie’s five children, 16 grandchildren and 21 great children: Pat (Brad) Rowley of Grand Island, NE; son Ethan (Kristen) Rowley (Gavin & Tyson); daughter Rachel (Jon) Jakob (Korben, Drew & Sawyer), and daughter Audrey Rowley; David Ehlmann of St. Louis, MO; son Logan Ehlmann, and son Kurt (Heather) Ehlmann (Natalie & Avery); Kenton (Linda) Ehlmann of Barnhart, MO; daughter Shannon (Ryan) Artinger (Reagan, Harper & Maddox), son Kyle (Courtney) Ehlmann (Tucker & Oliver), daughter Maggie (Matt) Harmon (Braxton, Kaden & Tyson), and son Clay (Ashley) Ehlmann (Peyten, Onyx & Oakley); Julie (Dave) Pace of Leawood, KS; daughter Meredith (Charles) Bickett, daughter Olivia Pace, daughter Caroline (Peter) Vu, and daughter Natalie Pace; Barbara (Mark) Stephens of Barnhart, MO; daughter Hannah (Greg) Mueller, son Luke (Savana) Stephens (Gabriel & Rheya) and son Paul (Sara) Stephens (Henry).

A memorial visitation will be held at Kutis South County Chapel, 5255 Lemay Ferry Rd., on Saturday, June 15, from 11 a.m. until time of service at 1 p.m. A private burial service will be held at a later date at Peaceful Meadows Cemetery in Hillsboro, MO. Memorials in Laverne’s name can be sent to either Reading is Fundamental, the Arnold Branch of the Jefferson County Library District, or the Mehlville Garden Club (3140 Lion’s Dens Road, Imperial, MO 63052).