Lonnie Koons

It’s hard to capture the life of someone larger than life- as Lonnie was-in a few paragraphs but we’ll give it our best shot. Lonnie Dean “Budgie” “Pastor” and his favorites of all, “Dad” and “Papa” Koons, died peacefully surrounded by his wife and sons on Thursday, February 3, 2022. Lonnie was born April 16, 1954, in Oskaloosa, Iowa to Norman and Norma Koons. He was a shy “PK” (preacher’s kid) who spent his childhood going to church, taking care of his younger siblings, working on the farm, and dreaming about that Zebco 202 fishing reel. (If you’ve heard him preach, you’ve heard this story….73,920 times. 😊) He graduated from Carlisle High School in 1972 and then enrolled at Faith Baptist Bible College. He didn’t graduate from there, but he did graduate from the School of Hard Knocks with a Major in DUMB and double Minors in NIT and WIT (a classic Lonnie joke) and became an ordained minister in 1976. In April of 1972, lightning struck, and he met Roxanne Harwood and the rest, as they say, is history. With his charm and dark brown eyes, he somehow convinced her to marry him, and they wed on March 21, 1975. They began their lives together living in a little house in Hartford, then a 10x13 shed, and eventually the 118-year-old farmhouse and 40 acres south of VM where they’ve made their home for the last 45 years. With room to grow, they welcomed their first son, Justin in Oct 1977 and then a (very) short 13 months later, their second son, Brian in November 1978. His boys were his pride and joy and everyone from the cashier at Tractor Supply (where he was a frequent flier) to the nurses and doctors who took care of him in the hospital knew not only their life stories but how very proud of his boys he was. They have so many memories of “spank my bare bottom” (it got weird when the boys were in their 30’s. haha), hunting, fishing, camping trips, raising hogs, and him just always being there, cheering them on. He taught them everything he knew about being a man of God, an amazing husband, an incredible father, a hard worker and caretaker of people, land, and animals. Lonnie was constantly on the go and was a bi-vocation pastor, working full time at MidAmerican Energy for 33 years (finally “retiring” in August 2020) and as pastor of DeSoto Calvary Baptist Church since 1987, where he was preaching and telling the same stories (again) just a few weeks ago. As if that and working around the acreage didn’t keep him busy enough, he could most often be found on the sidelines of Justin and Brian’s sporting events all through their childhood and teenage years, and then more recently the events of his grandkids, rarely missing a one. Go Bulldogs! Go Tigers! Go Defenders! Speaking of grandkids, his promotion to “Papa” in November 1999 with the birth of his first granddaughter, followed by 6 other grandchildren, was a title he wore most proudly, even on the license plate of his truck. Each of the 7 grandkids had their own special things with Papa whether it’s “I right here!”, “my pillow”, “you’re grounded”, sweet talking him into weekly trips all piled in his truck after church to the gas station to load them up on sugar, or “working” for him around the acreage which resulted in them being paid a super inflated hourly wage to do not much actual work. He loved being a Papa, spoiling and spending time with his grandkids, and bragging incessantly about them, just ask any stranger, friend, or foe, he ever ran into. Anyone that knew Lonnie knew two things: he loved Jesus and he loved his family (of which he considered his church family a part of), in that order, with his whole heart. Accepting Jesus at the age of 9, he spent the rest of his life ministering to others and sharing the gospel of Jesus. We’ll never fully know the number of lives he impacted or the number of people that he led to Christ, but we do know that now he’s got a mansion just over the hilltop and was welcomed into heaven with a “Well done thou good and faithful servant!” Lonnie was preceded in his heavenly journey by his father Norman and his mother Norma. Left behind to carry on his legacy of laughter, love, faith, and political news updates are his wife Roxanne, sons Justin (Holly) Koons of Van Meter and Brian (Lindsay) Koons of Earlham; seven grandchildren; Dakota, Hunter, Blade, Ryder, Chloe, Lyla, and Jadyn Koons; siblings Randy (Judy) Koons of St. Charles, IA, Debbie (Steve) Sheldahl of Peru, IA, and Beth Schurman of Mena, AR; and many nieces and nephews. The loss we feel is great and we’ll cherish the many memories and Lonnie-isms in our hearts forever. But as the chorus of his favorite way to close out a church service says, “til we meet again.”