Lois Laverna Lanning Sluga
Lois was born December 11, 1916. She was the middle child born to Will and Elzo (Mink) Lanning on a farm near Toddville, Iowa. Her mother died from complications of influenza and childbirth of brother, Ivan, on April 2, 1921, leaving Lois and her older sister, Dorotha, to be raised by their father. Lois was preceded in death by her parents; brother, Ivan; and sister, Dorotha. She is survived by her son, Gary L. Gongwer, of Riverside, CA; her husband of fifty-five plus years, Robert A. Sluga, of Lakeway, TX; the daughters of Dorotha, her only sibling, Judy David, of Moline, IL, and Bonnie Hansen, of Napierville, IL; numerous nieces and nephews on her husband's side; and several cousins in the Cedar Rapids, IA, area.
Lois graduated from Center Point, Iowa High School, in 1934. She managed to scrape together sufficient funds to attend Iowa State Teachers College, now the University of Northern Iowa, and earned a provisional teaching certificate that she utilized to teach in one room schools at Rowley, Robins, Edgewood 1, and Edgewood 2, in Cedar Rapids. She and son, Gary, moved to Torrance, CA, in 1946. She taught at Gardena Elementary in the Los Angeles school system for one year, then joined the newly formed Torrance Unified School District as one of the original fifty teachers on the staff. While teaching full time and raising her son, and not having a car, Lois rode the bus to evening classes at the University of Southern California, where she proudly earned her Bachelor of Education degree in 1953.
In 1956, while on sabbatical leave from the Torrance School District, she took employment with the Iranian Oil Exploration and Producing Company in the newly established primary school in Agha Jari, Iran. She met the man who would become her future husband there, Robert Sluga, who was a petroleum engineer for the same company. They married in 1958, and returned together to Torrance for six years, where she again taught in the Torrance School District. They moved back overseas to Tripoli, Libya, where Lois taught for the Oil Company school as well as the Department of Defense elementary school at Wheelus Air Base.
While there, Lois also found a calling to help and teach special education students. As her husband's employment dictated her location geographically, she found much happiness teaching at Passargad International School, in Ahwaz, Iran; the American Interests School of the Swiss Embassy in Algiers, Algeria; the American School in Teheran, Iran, and substituted in the Aramco schools in Ras Tanura and Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia. The Slugas returned to the United States in 1988 and settled in Lakeway, TX, on the shores of Lake Travis.
Lois was a lifelong Methodist and a charter member of the Lake Travis United Methodist Church. In 1948, mainly to help a fellow teacher who had a job selling cemetery lots, she purchased her interment plots in Green Hills Memorial Park in San Pedro, CA, overlooking Long Beach harbor, which she enjoyed viewing during her years in California.
Lois enjoyed music, crafts, sewing, travelling, attending plays and concerts, and hostessing dinner parties. She was active in churches during each assignment and sang in choirs and choral societies. She was also very talented on the piano and organ, often playing for church services.
Lois survived bouts with ovarian cancer in 1969; a non-malignant brain tumor in 1978, which cost her most of her eyesight; colon cancer in 2001; and a perforated colon during a colonoscopy in 2006. Throughout her life, no matter what was dealt to her, she maintained a positive attitude and put her faith in our Lord. She truly believed the words of the 23rd Psalm and recited the prayer each night always speaking the last sentence with great hope, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
Her life is best exemplified by the verses in Proverbs 31, which tell us, "Strength and dignity are her clothing and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the way of her household, and her child arises and calls her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. Many daughters have done nobly, but she excels them all. A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate."
Interment is scheduled for 1:00 pm on Friday, January 17,2014 in the Garden View section of the Green Hills Memorial Park,27501 South Western Avenue, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275.