August 17, 2021
Winifred Ruth (Griswold) Fuerst, 94, Lee’s Summit, MO, died on August 15, 2021. Funeral services will be at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, August 19, 2021, at Langsford Funeral Home, Lee’s Summit; internment in Floral Hills East Cemetery, Lee’s Summit. Friends may call from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the funeral home. Contributions may be made to the Memorial Fund of Lake Lotawana Community United Methodist Church, 28901 E. Colbern Rd., Lake Lotawana, MO 64086.
Winnie was born on December 22, 1926 in Sedalia, MO at the home of her parents, Lester and Lois (Triplet) Griswold. During high school she earned the First-Class Award, the highest Girl Scout award at that time, and did service hours helping in the war-effort. She graduated from Sedalia’s Smith Cotton High School in 1944. As an accomplished violinist, pianist, and vocalist she had hoped to study music at Central College in Fayette, MO, but that was not to be. Instead, she moved to Kansas City and worked as a secretary and contract clerk at Warner Brothers Pictures, and attended night classes at Huff Business School.
She married Leland Fuerst in 1948 and they moved to Lake Lotawana in 1949, where she lived until 2019, when she moved to Addington Place in Lee’s Summit. Winnie began volunteering in the library at Mason Elementary School in 1969 and was the school librarian from 1970 until she became the school’s second secretary in 1976. She remained in that position until her retirement in June 1996. She loved her job at Mason and she loved every one of the students that passed through the school during her 26-year tenure.
Winnie was very active at Lake Lotawana Community United Methodist Church, serving the Lord in any way she could. Singing in the choir, teaching Sunday School, and serving on numerous church committees were just a few of the things she did through the years. She was a genealogist, researching the Griswold and Fuerst family histories back many generations, and she was active in the Prairie Chapter of DAR. Winnie also enjoyed regularly attending the monthly luncheons of the Mason Elementary Retiree’s group.
Winnie will be missed by the countless people that got to know her through her many activities, but most of all by her family. She was preceded in death by her husband of 50 years, Leland; and is survived by one sister, Patricia Palmer, Kansas City, MO; three sons and daughters-in-law, Leland C. (Alice) Fuerst, Blue Springs, MO, Richard (Linda) Fuerst, Littleton, CO, and Brian (Sherry) Fuerst, Richardson, TX; five grandchildren, Christina (Eric) Harrison, VA, Capt. Melissa (Cole) Von Ohlen, MA, Capt. Andrew Fuerst, AK, Lt. Lauren (Mitchell) Judge, NY, and Stacia Bowles, CO; one great-grandson, Liam Harrison, VA; numerous nieces and nephews; and many friends.
