Leroy D. Newcomer, a longtime Johnson County resident, died January 14.  Memorial services beginning with rosary and visitation at 9:30 followed with Mass are scheduled for Saturday, January 29, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Lenexa.

The first of three sons born to Lester and Helen Kern Newcomer, he was born December 13, 1929 in Stanberry, Missouri.  Following high school graduation and a stint in the US Army, he and LaFaye Good married in Stanberry on May 4, 1952, and began a nearly 70-year partnership raising their children on shared values of a strong work ethic and thriftiness, yet maintaining a remarkable work-life balance.

Following graduation from business college he began a 35-year career in insurance administration in Kansas City, retiring in 1990.  Retirement permitted him to engage in a myriad of activities, but spending time at the home he built at Lake of the Ozarks, water skiing until just months before his 80th birthday, travel, gardening and golf stand out, and provided him great enjoyment.

​Left to mourn his passing are his widow, LaFaye; two daughters, Janet (Chuck) Engel, Topeka, and Jean (Ken) Gengler, Wichita; one son, Jeff (Maureen) Laguna Niguel, California; four grandchildren, Amelia Engel, John Gengler, Alyssa Newcomer (K C Rentfro), Lauren Gengler;  a brother, Charles J. “CJ” (Joyce), Kansas City; and a sister-in-law Loretta (Harvey) Smith, Topeka. He was preceded in death by both parents, his granddaughter Julia Engel, and a brother Gerald.

In lieu of flowers contributions to the Santa Marta Chapel or Holy Trinity Catholic Church, or donations of blood or funds to the Community Blood Bank are suggested.