Phyllis Loie (Woellhof) Hartner (Feb. 3, 1929 – May 18, 2022) died peacefully in her sleep in the early morning. Phyllis was born at home in Oak Hill, Kansas to Ezra and Grace (Ford) Woellhof, the middle and only girl of five children. She grew up on her family farm and graduated from Clay County Community High School in 1947.
Following the end of WWII, she caught the eye of a handsome, local returning GI, and they soon became a couple. On Oct. 4, 1947, she married the love of her life, Roy Hartner, at her parents’ home, on the hottest day of the year. After a honeymoon trip through the Southwest, they settled in Clay County where they spent the next 18 years farming and growing their family. In 1965, they left farming and moved to Boulder, Colorado.
Away from the farming life, they had the opportunity to spend more time doing the things they loved. While Phyllis worked much of her life, often in jobs that showcased her excellent sewing skills, she and Roy spent many days hiking, camping and off-roading in the mountains around Boulder. Her love of travel was obvious to everyone who knew her. During their 67-year marriage, they traveled to all 50 states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. In later years, they took off in their motorhome to travel around the US helping build churches through the Laborers for Christ program of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.
While her church was very important to her, her family was the light of her life. After retirement, she and Roy moved to Loveland, CO in 1999, to be closer to their grandchildren. She was a doting grandma, always welcoming arrivals with fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Never one to sit around, she was always ready to lend a hand wherever needed. Her grandchildren will forever fondly remember her color themed Christmas trees, her love of Precious Moments figurines and her signature “sh, sh, sh” whenever things got too loud. Two years after Roy’s death in 2015, she moved to Longmont, CO, where she spent her final days.
She was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Gwain and Melvin, an infant brother, Richard, and her beloved husband, Roy. She is survived by her sons Rick (Rosemary) and Daryl Hartner, daughter Trudy (Mike) Loucks, grandchildren Marianne (Jeff) Hartner-Godown, Auliya McCauley-Hartner, Talia (Pete) Damrow, Hailey, Wilson and Joely Loucks, great-granddaughter Reina Damrow, brothers Truman (Leona) and Eldon Woellhof and many nieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be held at Neill-Schwensen-Rook Funeral Home on Mon. May 23 at 1:30 pm with internment following at Greenwood Cemetery, Clay Center, Kansas.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any memorial donations be made to Bristol Hospice of Northern Colorado, by mail at 3770 Puritan Way, Suite E, Frederick, CO 80516 or online at https://bristolfoundation.org/donation-page/.