LAWRENCE — Surrounded by her four children at her home, Norma Lea Curry Shafer-Yancey, 84, peacefully passed away on May 4th. Born on Christmas Day in 1928, to Leslie and Glenda Curry in Burlington, Wash., Norma Lea Curry and her family moved to Great Bend, before her second birthday. Shortly after her graduation from high school, Norma met Ted Shafer at a picnic dance. They were married in 1948, and had four children. Shafer’s position with a national retail company required the family to move frequently, including to such states as Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Pennsylvania.
Six years after Shafer’s passing in 1983, Norma married Harley Yancey in Bentonville, Ark. The couple lived in Bella Vista, Ark., until Yancey’s passing in 2002. Norma then moved to Lawrence to be closer to two of her children.
Norma was preceded in death by her parents and three siblings—Dean Curry, Robert Curry, and JoAnn Curry Crabb. She is survived by her four children and their spouses, Melinda Huston and her husband, John, of Lawrence, Kevin Shafer and his wife, Dori, of Pleasant Hill, Calif., Stu Shafer and his wife, Patti, of Oskaloosa, and Karen Johnson and her husband, Don, of Iowa City, Iowa. She had 10 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 6:30 p.m. on May 9 at the Rumsey-Yost funeral home in Lawrence. Inurnment will be in Great Bend. Memorials are requested to be in the form of contributions to Visiting Nurses/Hospice of Lawrence, in care of the funeral home. Online condolences may be sent at rumsey-yost.com.

Funeral arrangements provided by
Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home**
601 Indiana St.
Lawrence, KS 66044
Great Bend (Kan) Tribune, May 8, 2013