Neoma Fern Flaming
Neoma Fern Flaming Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information (jostfuneralhome.com)
March 19, 1940 - December 3, 2022
Hillsboro - Neoma Fern Flaming, 82, passed away December 3, 2022 at Sunshine Meadows Retirement Community in Buhler. She was born March 19, 1940 in Hutchinson to Frank and Martha (Franz) Peters.
She married Lester Flaming June 23, 1958 in Hillsboro.
Survivors include: husband Lester Flaming of Buhler; son Les (Kora) Flaming of Denver, Colorado; daughters Jannita (Leonard) Reiss of St. Albans, Maine, Tammy (Randy) Heidel of Hutchinson; brother Virgil (KayLani) Peters of Colorado Springs, Colorado; 12 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.
Celebration of Life 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 6, 2022 at Sunshine Meadows Retirement Community Chapel in Buhler officiated by Pastor Leonard Reiss. Interment 10:00 a.m. Tuesday at French Creek cemetery rural Hillsboro. Memorials to Open Door Pregnancy Care Center in care of Jost Funeral Home, P.O. Box 266 Hillsboro, KS 67063.
Life Sketch Taken from the Funeral Bulletin
Neoma Fern Flaming was born March 19, 1940 in Hutchinson, KS to Frank and Martha Peters.
She grew up on a farm north of Hillsboro in the French Creek community with her younger siblings, Viola and Virgil. She attended French Creek School, a one-room schoolhouse for 1st – 8th grades.
An interesting story regarding her life-long love of coffee is that her mom added coffee to her bottle when she wouldn’t drink the milk. The love for coffee stayed and she refused to drink milk her entire life.
She accepted Jesus as her Savior in her early teens through her Bible School teacher at the Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church. Her love for the Lord continued to grow throughout the rest of her life. She loved studying her Bible and it is full of personal notes and markings.
She met the love of her life for the first time as a 4th grader at French Creek School when Lester Flaming moved to the area as a 7th grader. They officially began noticing each other when she was a junior in high school and had a flat tire on the way to a basketball game. Her knight in shining armor arrived to take care of her. Shortly after that they began to see each other and had a secret way to communicate since they lived a half-mile apart. Lester used a spotlight run by a battery pulled from his car, and Neoma enlisted the help of her sister to flip the light switch across her bedroom when she saw his light.
They were married June 23, 1958 and immediately moved to Evanston, Illinois where Les was completing his 1W service at a hospital there.
They moved back to Hillsboro in 1960 where their first daughter, Jannita, was born. They moved regularly between Hillsboro and Artesian, South Dakota due to Lester’s work with Barkman Honey Company. Their son, Les, was born in South Dakota in 1961. By 1968 when their daughter Tammy joined the family, they had purchased a home in Hillsboro. They continued to live in Hillsboro until 2021 when they moved to Buhler.
Neoma was known for being an entrepreneur. She had a great love of people and a flair for business. She owned many home-based businesses throughout her life. She also realized her dream of having her own store when she opened the Something Special Shoppe on Main St. in Hillsboro where she sold bulk foods, homemade soups, sandwiches, baked goods, and frozen yogurt.
Neoma had several mini-strokes throughout her life and began to suffer from dementia, showing early signs around 2011. She lived at home until October, 2018 when she suffered a fall that caused her to break her neck. This led to a permanent placement at Salem Home in Hillsboro until 2021 when she moved to Sunshine Meadows in Buhler. Lester joined her in Buhler at a duplex across the street, soon after. They communicated every day even when they couldn’t be together in person, until she passed away on December 3, 2022.
Online condolences at www.jostfuneralhome.com.
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