Obituary of Lana June Howard

 Lana June Howard, age 80, of Peoria, Arizona, and formerly of Phoenix, Arizona, passed away at home on Friday, April 14th, 2023, after a three year battle with lung cancer.  Lana was born to Robert and Alice in Lima, Ohio, in 1942.  She was preceded in death by her brother, Robert.  She is survived by her husband, David; her siblings, Ted and Bette Jo; three children, Mark, Kim and Patrick; 11 grandchildren, Jayson, Jamie, Kayla, Emily, Abel, Jennifer, Jessica, Sadie, Samantha, Natali and Emma; and 15 great grandchildren, Paige, Talon, Cayson, Abigail, Devon, Ruben, Klara, Geneva, Jason, Jentrie, Josie, Shiloh, Brendan, Aria and Kaitlyn, and preceded in death by Mason.

She graduated from Shawnee High School and trained in saddle seat horse riding. She grew up showing horses and won multiple shows, including the Cleveland Tristate Championship Horseshow for the Ladies Three Gaited Class in 1960 on her horse, Veiled Promise, and she was crowned “Lady Rider of the Year” in 1959.  She attended Stephens College, a very prestigious private women’s college in Columbia, Missouri, in 1960 where she was a member of the Prince of Wales Club.  In 1962 after her time showing horses, she worked as a secretary for the Lima Memorial Hospital School of Nursing.  She married her first husband, Ed, in 1962, and they had three children. She later divorced and in 1980 moved to Phoenix where she worked at Earport in Christown Mall.  In 1981, she met her soulmate, David.  They married in 1983 and didn’t leave each other’s side until the day she passed.  She graduated from Paradise Valley Community College in 1997 as part of the International Honor Society for Word Processing and was a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Society.  She had a joy of travel that led her to work for MesaAir/America West Airlines in 1998, and she retired in 2012.  She and David loved to travel together, and they explored many places including Alaska, New Zealand and Greece.  She regularly flew to San Francisco to get fresh sourdough bread and fish and to enjoy the views.  She had a love of jewelry and collected many pieces over the years, and she helped David run their jewelry store until he retired.  She loved to garden and had a massive flower and vegetable garden in her yard.  She loved to build things from scratch, and her projects over the years included building a large workshop and adding a bedroom addition to her house. Two of her greatest passions later in life were her dogs, Precious and Oso.  The dogs became her children in retirement.  They were spoiled rotten and could do no wrong.  She was very stern and direct, but she was also very passionate and caring.  She was so loved and will be missed.

The family would like to extend a special thank you to the nurses, chaplains and staff at Hospice of the Valley and her personal caregivers, Tami, Kay and Kim, who helped make her comfortable through some very difficult times.  Thank you so much for your support.