Lavona M. Gillham

          Lavona M. Gillham, 86, of St. Paul died Thursday, June 16, 2016 at Tiffany Square Care Center in Grand Island.

          Services will be held at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday at Jacobsen-Greenway Funeral Home in St. Paul.  Reverend Martha Voigt will officiate.  Interment will be held at 2:00 p.m. in Mount Hope Cemetery in Scotia.

          Visitation will be on Tuesday from 9:30 a.m. until service time at the funeral home.

          Memorials are suggested to the Scotia United Methodist Church or the Scotia Volunteer Fire Department.  

          Lavona was born October 23, 1929 in Cushing to Tim and Lola Silk.  One of four children, Lavona was raised on a farm near Cushing and helped with raising of chickens, hog and milking cows.

          She attended Cushing elementary and high schools, graduating in 1946.  After graduation, she briefly worked at Knott’s Café, before working as a telephone operator.

          She met her future husband, Fay Gillham, at a dance in Dannebrog in 1948 and the couple was married on February 13, 1950.  The couple purchased a home in Scotia soon after their wedding.  To this union were born three children, Gary, Linda and Greg. 

          Lavona was a waitress at the Scotia Café from 1969 through 1994, when she retired.

          She kept busy with homemaking, baking, playing bridge, and gardening.  The couple enjoyed dancing to country music and visiting the Grand Island Veteran’s Home to entertain the retired vets.  She helped Scotia Homecoming for many years be selling raffle tickets and decorating floats.  The couple sold their Scotia home and moved to St. Paul in 2009.

          Survivors include by her husband, Fay of St. Paul; a daughter and son-in-law, Linda and Mike Sabin of Lincoln; a son and daughter-in-law, Greg and Sheri Gillham of Gretna; grandchildren, Amber Melero and her husband Jason and Matt Gillham, all of Austin, TX; and Candie Klein of Lincoln; and three great-grandchildren and two sisters, Fern Kunze and Connie Parmley.

          She is preceded in death by her parents; a son, Gary Gillham and a brother, Wayne Silk.

 Service Information