Bertha Leap

Bertha Esther Leap, daughter of Walter Franklin and Mary Ione Hedrick, was born on May 23, 1925. She left this world on Monday, July 29, 2024 to be reunited with her many family and friends, who left before her. At the time of her passing, she was ninety-nine years of age.

Bertha attended Camdenton High School, where she was proud to be a member of the Drum and Bugle corps; she has her picture with this group included in the published history written about the Lake of the Ozarks. She was able to attend her senior class banquet in the Ha Ha Tonka Castle prior to it catching fire and burning down.

In her childhood, cars were a pretty new invention and didn’t have a lot of rules in place for driving them; her dad allowed her to drive their car at the age of 12, to help deliver milk from the dairy they operated, to their customers. Also, as a teenager, she helped “Miss Abby”, who operated the local funeral parlor, deliver meals to county jail inmates.

Following her high school graduation, Bertha was united in marriage to Raymond Leslie Leap, prior to him joining the United States Navy and leaving to serve his country during WWII; during this time, she worked as a telephone switchboard operator. Bertha was for many years, a stay-at-home mom, but in her 50’s she studied and was certified to be an emergency medical technician and then a paramedic, working for the local ambulance service for many years. This was an exciting occupation that she enjoyed very much and provided her with many exciting tales to relate, until she retired in her 70’s.

Bertha was preceded in death by her husband of fifty-nine years, Raymond; her parents; her brothers, Walter, Russell, and Charles Hedrick; her sister, Donna Sue McConnell; daughter, Judith Kay DeGuire; daughter-in-law, Sandra Leap; and so many other loved ones and friends with which she can now finally enjoy that glad reunion day.

She is survived by her children, Joyce Marshall & husband Robert, Janet Hale, Jerry Leap & wife Brenda, Jeffrey Leap, James Leap, and Joanne Shaw & husband Bobby. In her passing, she also leaves behind many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews, who all cherished and admired her ways and accomplishments.

She always made it known that she placed her faith in God and was saved by faith and trust in Jesus to look forward to an unimaginably amazing eternal life after this short temporary one. Her faith and thankfulness was never wavered, no matter what trials came her way in this life and she passed on that faith and strength to do the same to all she came in contact with, which were many.

She believed the saying, “We are not human beings having temporary spiritual experiences; we are spiritual beings living a temporary human experience.”

Arrangements are under the direction of Allee-Holman-Howe Funeral Home of Camdenton, Missouri.