Ferne G. Banning

Ferne G. Banning, 94, formerly of Coal Valley, Illinois, died Friday, January 19, 2007, in Good Samaritan Nursing Home, Geneseo, Illinois.

Services are 11 a.m. Thursday at First Presbyterian Church, Coal Valley, with The Reverend Tim Snart officiating. Burial is in Coal Valley Cemetery. Visitation is one hour before the services, and the family will also greet friends at a luncheon at the church following burial services. Trimble Funeral and Cremation Center, Coal Valley, is entrusted with arrangements. Memorials may be made to the church or Good Samaritan Village.

The former Ferne Goldie Bodeen was born May 23, 1912, near Orion, Illinois, at the site of the present Lake Lynnwood, to Frank Oscar and Lydia Marie Vivian (Shult) Bodeen. Her father came to the United States from Sweden at the age of three. She graduated from Alpha High School and business college in Rock Island. She married Merwin J. Lees on February 17, 1931, in Alpha, Illinois. He died October 13, 1963. She married Harold R. Banning on January 16, 1965, in Coal Valley. He died May 27, 2004.

Ferne was bookkeeper and receptionist for the former Myers Clinic in Coal Valley, for many years, and also was a bookkeeper for the former Moline National and Uptown National Banks in Moline. Following her retirement, she worked as a receptionist for Trimble Funeral Home in Coal Valley from the time the funeral home opened in 1977 until moving to Geneseo in 1993. She was an active member of First Presbyterian Church, Coal Valley, which she joined in 1937. She was church organist and church treasurer for many years, and a member of the adult Bible class, the Women?s Association, and Mariners. She was past Worthy Matron and a 67 year member of Valley Chapter #274, Order of Eastern Star, and a member of Rock Island County Home Extension.

Ferne is survived by three daughters and sons-in-law, Beverly F. and John Chrisop of Monticello, Indiana, Mary J. and Wayne Taube of Coal Valley, and Shirley E. and Ken Roehrs of Newberry, South Carolina; step-children, H. Donald and Marcia Banning of Coal Valley, Jon Banning of Quincy, Illinois, and Joycelyn (Joy) Banning of California; 12 grandchildren, two step-grandchildren; 27 great-grandchildren; a brother and sisters-in-law, Rev. Harold Q. and Lois Bodeen of Mahomet, Illinois, and Irene Bodeen of Louisville, Kentucky. She was preceded in death by an infant son, Wesley M. Lees; a step-son, Gene Banning; sisters, Helen Johnson, Laurena Johnson, and Ethel Epperson; and brothers, Vincent, Gerald, and Virgil Bodeen.

Ferne’s family invites friends to express condolences, share a story about her or light a candle in her memory at www.TrimbleFuneralHomes.com.