Leonard W. Wells

Leonard William Wells was born April 11, 1934, the son of John and Louise Book Wells. He died Sunday, June 19, 2016, at the Crawford County Memorial Hospital in Denison, Iowa at the age of eighty-two.
Len was born in Defiance, Iowa and received his education in Defiance and graduated from St. Peter and Paul’s High School in 1952. After completing his education he entered the United States Army serving his country in the Military Police. During his service, he was stationed in Germany for nearly 3 years of the four years of military duty. After receiving his honorable discharge on January 31, 1963, he returned to the Defiance area and worked at Squceler Feeds Store in Harlan. He worked for 10 years at Farmland Food in Denison before purchasing Don Kluver’s pumping service, which he owned and operated as Wells Pumping Service for more than 30 years. Len was united in marriage to Jeanie Lehen, June 10, 1957. After being married for 40 years, Jeanie passed away on August 9, 1997. April 10, 1999, Len was married to Darlene Ploeger in Defiance. He often remarked that he had been married to two beautiful wives.
Len enjoyed building go-carts and restoring cars. In his leisure time he loved camping especially at Yellowsmoke and Okoboji, fishing, wintering in Mission, Texas, coffee at Coleman Motor. He enjoyed socializing with neighbors over coffee and a card game. He also enjoyed attending his grandchildrens baseball, basketball games and enjoying board games with family, along with piano recitals and pizza with the Schwieso kids. Len was a recovering alcoholic for 39 years and helped many others through their recovery process, gave many talks to association meetings and helping those in need.
Len was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Jeanie; one son, Brian; and two brothers, John and Donald in infancy. Survivors include his wife, Darlene; two daughters, Kelly and Kristina and her husband, James Jr.; one daughter-in-law, Deb; two step-daughters, Jodi and her husband, Trent; and Julie and her husband, Quentin; one step-son, Jeff and his wife, Margaret; four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, one great great-grandchild; six step-grandchildren, two step great-grandchildren; and one sister-in-law, Mary; many other relatives and friends.