LoRae L Unger Obituary (1925 - 2019)

LoRae Unger - When LoRae Veda Lenhert was born April 15, 1925 on a chicken ranch in Lawndale, California. Brother, Gilles, four years older, heard her and said "Oh, we have some baby ducks!" "No, it's your sister." Oh, he said, "She's too little to play with." Her mother died when she was just 14, so she went to live with her Aunt Amy Surtees, who was like a big sister to her. After graduating from North Hollywood High School, on her twentieth birthday, LoRae enlisted in the U.S. Navy WAVES. She trained at Hunter College, the Bronx, NY. She was then stationed in Banana River, Florida, where she was an instructor training Navy combat air crewmen in the recognition of ships and planes. There she met Richard Shaw on a blind date, married June 24, 1946, and gave the world son Daniel in December 1947 and daughter Linda in April 1949. The family moved to California, living in the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys. LoRae and Richard divorced in 1966. On May 3, 1968, she met Cody Harold Unger at a singles dance. Cody asked for her name and telephone number while dancing, but had nothing to write them down on! He later tracked down her number and called to ask for a first real date. Cody was a shop teacher at Bonita High School, after serving 26 years in the US Army, a veteran of World War II and Korea. They married on December 22, 1968. LoRae Unger worked for an employment company for some years, before deciding to get a nursing license. She then worked as a nurse for 20 years, wherever she and Cody lived. She's always loved craft, painting and firing ceramics, and painting in oils. In recent years, she taught arts and crafts to neighbor children. Cody and LoRae discovered the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the early 1970s and were sealed in marriage at the Los Angeles Temple on September 21, 1974. They joined the thousands of Mormons dancing on the Pasadena Rose Bowl field in the huge Bicentennial celebration in 1976. Cody had a passion for building things, and finding interesting places to live. When he retired from teaching, they moved to Guanahuato Mexico, St. George Utah, Pioche Nevada, Richmond Virginia, Alamogordo New Mexico, and, finally, Brigham City, Utah. Cody built houses from scratch in St. George and Alamogordo. They also served in the Peace Corps in Jamaica , toured Egypt and Israel, and traveled extensively on motorcycle, often camping. including a trip through Mexico. Through all of these adventures, the always very outgoing and engaging LoRae made countless friends, within the LDS community and beyond. Cody passed away on July 1, 2011. LoRae joined him in heaven on January 15, 2019. She is survived by daughter Linda Mears, granddaughters Amy Hanson and Libby Mears, son Daniel Shaw, grandsons Dash and Nicholas Shaw, and great granddaughter Castle Irene Shaw.