LEIGHTY, Violet G.

Violet G. Leighty, 89, of Grand Island died Sunday, April 24, 2005, at the Perkins Pavilion Care Center of the Good Samaritan Village in Hastings. Graveside services will be at 10:15 A.M. Wednesday, April 26, 2005, at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Hastings. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 P.M. Tuesday at Livingston-Sondermann Funeral Home in Grand Island. Mrs. Leighty was born February 8, 1916, in Phillips County, KS to John P. and Ollie (Waller) Griffin. Immediate survivors include one son, Billy H. Leighty of Kenesaw; one daughter, Willis Ann (Mrs. Doug) Hall of Slidell, LA; one brother, Jack Griffin of North Vernon, IN; and one sister, Jean (Mrs. Art) Waller of Gothenburg, NE. She was preceded in death by her husband, and one brother, Bill Griffin. Additional survivors include six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Violet grew up and attended school in Phillips County. She married Willard W. Leighty at Logan, KS on December 27, 1933. They farmed in Norton County, KS until his death on September 7, 1946. She worked for several weekly newspapers in Western Kansas and wrote a weekly column, which appeared regularly in a number of Kansas newspapers. Her column was widely quoted in such publications as the Kansas City Star, The Topeka Daily Capital, The Denver Post and Reader’s Digest. She was Poet Laureate of the Kansas Federation of Women’s Clubs and President of the Women’s Press Association of Kansas. Her articles, human-interest stories and poetry have appeared in Arizona Highways, Better Homes and Gardens, The Denver Post, Family Circle, Women’s World and others. Her sonnets have been featured in such anthologies as the The Yearbook of Modern Poetry and Lyrical Voices. After leaving the newspaper world, she became branch secretary for Western Adjustment Company in Norton, KS. In 1958, she moved to Hastings, NE and was employed as branch secretary for General Adjustment Bureau Business Services in Hastings. In 1967 she was transferred to Kingman, Arizona where she worked as branch secretary for the company’s office there. After 22 years with General Adjustment Bureau, she retired in 1978. In January of 1979 she became a partner in the Finkbeiner Real Estate Appraisal Service in Kingman and worked in that capacity for ten years. She retired in 1989 and moved to Grand Island to be near her family.