Verla Lea (Shepard) Harlan

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Verla Lea Harlan passed away at 7:23 a.m., Thursday, May 2, 2024 at North Care Hospice House in North Kansas City, MO at the age of 100.

Funeral services are scheduled for 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the First Christian Church in Trenton.  A visitation is scheduled from 1:00 until service time at the church.  Open visitation will be from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., Monday at Resthaven Mortuary of Trenton.  A private burial will be at a later time in Resthaven Memorial Gardens of Trenton.  Memorial donations are suggested to either the First Christian Church or the North Care Hospice and may be left with or mailed to Slater Neal Funeral Home in Trenton.

Verla was born to Delmar Lee and Ocie (Turner) Shepard on August 11, 1923.  She attended school at Mt. Moriah, MO.  On March 28, 1942, she married Clifford Ray Clapham.  They farmed and raised three children:  Billy Conrad, Linda Lou and Paul Douglas.  Clifford died in 1978.  Verla worked as a nurses’ aid at Wright Memorial Hospital.  She loved to read, play cards and crochet.  She volunteered at several places.  On September 15, 1983 Verla married Ed Harlan.  He passed away in 1991.  Verla is survived by her children:  Bill Clapham, Linda Lou Crowder and husband Frank, and Paul Douglas Clapham and wife Lynett, step children Ron Harlan and wife Vanda, and Cheryl Sanders and husband Gary, brothers Noel Clifford Shepard and wife Alice, Jimmy Roe Shepard, and Roger Shepard Cain and wife Barbara; nine grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren, and several great-great grandchildren.

Verla was preceded in death by one daughter-in-law Sharon Clapham, three brothers; Walt, Charles and Loren Shepard; three sisters:  Ila Gail Lawson, Monice Averill and Kay Smith, a grandson a step grandson and a niece and a nephew.

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