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Lela E. Veeck

• BORN: December 26, 1916
• DIED: October 29, 2006
• LOCATION: Estes Park, CO

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Lela was born on December 26, 1916 and passed away on Sunday, October 29, 2006. Lela was last known to be living in Estes Park, Colorado.

FROM THE NEWSPAPER:

Lela Emma Allinger was born December 26, 1916 in Seymour, IN. Her parents were the Most Reverend Carl & Emma (Kerkhof) Allinger. Lela was an organist for over 80 years at Salem United Methodist Church in Evansville, IN, and the United Methodist Church in Estes Park, CO, and had played at over 500 weddings. Lela claimed to have been the only organist to play for a wedding in her summer shorts, when she hastily participated in a ceremony for a departing G.I. and his bride during the onset of World War II. She also taught kindergarten in Evansville, IN, for 17 years. She loved to play bridge and sing in the choir. Leal has three children, Tara Moenning, Richard, and Alan Charles Sr; she is preceded in death by her husband, Richard, parents, and two brothers.

FROM HER SON, ALAN CHARLES VEECK SR:

Our Mother and friend, Lela Emma Allinger Veeck, slipped peacefully into the arms of Jesus on Sunday, November 29, 2006. She joins our father, Richard Edward Veeck, who passed away 32 years ago, and our grandfather and grandmother, the Most Revered Carl and Emma Allinger.

Lela was born on December 26, 1916, in Seymour, Indiana, and was the first child baptized at the newly-built White Creek Methodist Church in Seymour.
Her parents moved to Evansville in 1921 when our grandfather was called to become a Methodist minister and assigned to Salem Methodist Church. The eldest of four children, Lela attended Highland School in Evansville through the eighth grade and graduated from Reitz High School in the class of 1934. She was chosen as part of an octet to sing at her graduation ceremony. She rode the bus to school everyday and sat next to Richard. After they graduated from Reitz, they married.

Lela’s talent was music. Since her parents could not afford music lessons, her father would sing a hymn until, with practice, she was able to play it. She taught herself both to read music and play by ear and when the church purchased an organ, she mastered that also. She began playing the piano in church at age 10 and played in churches throughout her life, finishing with the United Methodist Church in Estes Park, Colorado, where she lived her final years. She estimated that she played for over 500 weddings and an equal number of funerals. She always played at family reunions, and when she wasn’t playing the piano or organ, she was singing in the church choir.

Since there wasn’t a kindergarten in Evansville in the late 1940s, Lloyd Cotton and Lela teamed up and opened one at Salem Church. They ran the school for five years until the public school system opened one. When Bart McCutcheon needed a kindergarten assistant, he called Lela because he liked the way she played the piano. This began her career of being a teacher in the Evansville school system, opening the horizon of education to hundreds of young children. She retired after teaching 17 years. On one occasion when her kindergarten class held a field trip aboard the Delta Queen, the Captain offered her the chance to play the steam Calliope. She climbed onto the bench, put on soundproof earphones, and to the delight of everyone, played “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

Lela was also quite proficient at