Lela Doris (Spurlock) Nash

On October 6, 2012, Lela Doris Nash, 83, entered into rest at John Knox Hospice in Lee's Summit, Missouri after a valiant battle with cancer.


Lela was born August 31, 1929 in Squires, Missouri to Stella Adeline (Kennedy) and Charles Monroe Spurlock, the youngest of 10 children. She attended Ava High School, graduating in 1947. On May 28, 1951, Lela married Elroy G. Nash in Mountian Home, Arkansas, and their union produced three children. Right out of high school she taught at Kolb School near Squires and at several rural schools in Douglas and Ozark Counties. She worked as a hairdresser in the Ava community for several years before the family moved to Kansas City. She attended Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield and Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg and obtained a Bachelor's degree, along with a teaching certificate. Lela taught a combined first and second grade class in Strasburg, Missouri for twelve years. After retirement she operated a home-based day care to watch over her grandchildren and other children.


Lela's hobbies included reading and writing, playing pitch and other card games, working crossword puzzles, and enjoying her friends and large, extended family. She enjoyed singing, playing piano, and reading to children of all ages.


Lela was preceded in death by her husband, Elroy in 1993, her parents, two brothers John and Fred Spurlock, and six sisters, Velma Davis, Mary "Sis" Turner, Lula Kellogg, Elsie Russell, Maude Robertson and Ethel Warden.


She is survived by her three children, one daughter, Karen Sue Bennett and her husband Robert of Lake Winnebago, Missouri, her sons, Dwight Monroe Nash DVM and his wife Nancy of Jacksonville, Florida, Michael Roy Nash DVM and his wife Charlene of Bloomfield, Iowa. She is also survived by six grandchildren, Katie Evans and husband Mason, Emily Nash, Brian Bennett and wife Alexis, Christina Bennett, Steven and David Nash, and two great-grandchildren, Madison and Jackson Bennett. Also surviving, one brother, Charles E. "Chuck" Spurlock of Squires, one brother in-law Jerry Nash & wife Kathleen of Harrisonville, Missouri, and two sisters in-law Lorene Nash of Ava and Dorothy Spurlock of Squires, and many nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.


Visitation will be held at Clinkingbeard Funeral Home, Ava, Missouri at 7pm on Tuesday, October 9th with funeral to follow on, Wednesday, October 10th at 10am.Interment will follow at Fannon Cemetery. Officiating is Pastor Oren Alcorn. Memorials may be made to Fannon Cemetery.