Aletha Mae Turner
Aletha Mae Turner of Columbia died Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010. She was 67.
Ms. Turner was born May 31, 1943, in Eau Claire, Wis., to Spencer and Ellamae (Newberry) Turner.
Ms. Turner graduated from Rice Lake High School in 1961 and received a Bachelor of Science in home economics from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1965. In 1965 she joined President Lyndon Johnson’s VISTA program. In 1969 she received a master's degree in social work from Wayne State University.
After her work in the VISTA program, Ms. Turner worked for the state of Illinois as a supervisor in the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission. She retired in 2002.
Ms. Turner moved to Columbia in 2008. She was a member of the Columbia Downtown Optimist Club, where she participated in many of the club’s youth activities.
Ms. Turner will be remembered as a gentle, caring lady, who loved her cats, NASCAR racing, Carl Edwards, the Chicago Cubs, the Missouri Tigers, watching television, catalog shopping and traveling.
She is survived by her brother, Spencer Turner and his wife, Joan, of Columbia; stepbrother, Ken Miller of LaCrosse, Wis.; nephew Warren Turner and his wife, Maria, of Phoenix; nephew Mac Turner and his wife, Sheryl, of Cleveland, Mo.; and niece Sue Martin and her husband, John, of Millersburg.
Ms. Turner's parents; stepmother, Irene Turner; and stepsister, Marian Anderson, died earlier.
Memorial services will be at 2:00 p.m. on Jan. 5 at Missouri United Methodist Church, 204 S. Ninth St. A private internment will follow later in Wisconsin.
Memorial contributions can be made in her name to Central Missouri Humane Society, 616 Big Bear Blvd., Columbia, MO 65202.
