Leona Mae "Lee" Kerkhoff, age 96, passed away on Saturday, October 21, 2022, in her sleep. She is survived by her three daughters, Stephanie Arey, Sandra Solon, Karen (Don) Bailey; six grandchildren; three great grandchildren; two great great grandchildren; and a sister, Norma Christon.
Lee was born on July 6, 1926, daughter of Reverend and Mrs. Walter and Melanie Vandre. She graduated from Ervin High School in 1944 and was married to Clarence (Smoky) Kerkhoff from September 23, 1945, until his death in March of 1991.
A good and faithful servant of the Lord, she enjoyed worship at Grace Evangelical Lutheran church for 68 years where she served on many committees over the years and sang tenor and alto in the choir. She was known for her wonderful sense of humor, and she was also a fabulous cook.
She spent summers, when her grandchildren were younger, lovingly setting up "Camp Kerkhoff" in her home and kept groups of her grandchildren based on age, for a whole week. She would later release them back to their grateful parents after lots of memory-making adventures and delicious home cooked meals later. She probably needed at least a week of quiet solitude to recover from it all. In later years several families would go to "the lake" (usually in Michigan or Wisconsin) and rent cabins next to each other so that everyone could share in all the activities including fishing, swimming, laying in the sun, or an evening game of Pounce. Life -long memories (and stories) came from those trips as well.
Lee is preceded in death by her parents, Reverend Walter and Melanie (Mertz) Vandre; her two brothers, Robert Hugo Vandre and Kenneth Paul Vandre; her sister, Helen (Vandre) Schakel; and her husband, Clarence (Smoky) Kerkhoff.

A celebration of her life will be held at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, 610 North Reserve Avenue Muncie, Indiana 47303 on Saturday, December 10, 2022. Visitation will begin at 9:30AM, and the funeral will begin at 10:30AM after which the family will go to the gravesite. In lieu of flowers the family requests that memorials be made to the church – Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in her memory.