Leah Gertrude Whetsel

Leah Gertrude Whet­sel (nee Karsh­ner), 95, of Delaware passed away on Sun­day (Oct. 7, 2012).

Leah grad­u­ated from Pow­ell High School, class of 1934. Leah and William were mar­ried in May of 1940 in Mount Gilead. Leah and her hus­band owned and oper­ated the Red and White Gro­cery Store at 236 W. Cen­tral Ave. in Delaware from 1948 to 1991. She was best known for sell­ing pret­zel rods for a penny from behind the counter and hang­ing pic­tures on the cash reg­is­ter from every­one in the com­mu­nity. Peo­ple knew her as Leah, Mrs. Whet­sel and Gaga. She had many roles in life, some of which were cashier, neigh­bor, friend, mother, aunt, sis and grand­mother. She always wel­comed the chance to rock a baby to sleep or enjoy a Cincin­nati Reds base­ball game. Leah devoted her life to her fam­ily. She spent many hours cook­ing fam­ily din­ners that always included mul­ti­ple desserts.

She was born Oct. 29, 1916, in Franklin County to William Alfred Karsh­ner and Min­nie Estelle Grace who pre­ceded her in death as well as her twin brother, Leo Karsh­ner; older brother, Ivan; hus­band, William Parks Whet­sel Junior; and their daugh­ter, Diana Marie O’Keefe.

She is sur­vived by three grand­chil­dren, Eliz­a­beth O’Keefe (Misha Radovanovic), Rebecca O’Keefe Shorter (Dan Shorter) and William O’Keefe (Valerie O’Keefe); and great-grandchildren, Mer­rick, Alek­san­dar, Eli, Margo, Leo and Luka.

Arrange­ments have been made at Robin­son Funeral Home in Delaware. Call­ing hours will be from 5 to 8 p.m. today, Oct. 9. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednes­day, Oct. 10, with grave­side memo­r­ial imme­di­ately following.

Con­do­lences may be expressed at robinsonfuneralhomeinc.com. Dona­tions may be made to Peo­ple in Need of Delaware, P.O. Box 962, Delaware, OH 43015.

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Oct 8 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.