Lenora Ellen Cairo, 68, of Atchison, KS died Sunday, December 04, 2022, at the Atchison Medicalodge.

Funeral services will be held at 11:30 am on Friday, December 9th, 2022, at the Trinity Lutheran Church with Rev. Robert Ziegler officiating. The family will receive friends from 6:30 to 8:00 pm on Thursday, December 8th, 2022, at the Becker-Dyer-Stanton Funeral Home. The body will be cremated following the service and internment of the cremated remains will be at a later date in the Doniphan Cemetery. Memorials are suggested to the Trinity Lutheran School Endowment or Grant Fund and may be sent in care of the funeral home. Condolences to the family may be left online at www.beckerdyer.com.

Lenora was born on September 6, 1954, in Louisiana, MO the daughter of Robert Lewis and Nellie Annie Irene (Adams) Welch, Sr. She graduated from Bowling Green High School and earned an associate degree in Art at Hannibal LaGrange College. Lenora worked for over 30 years as the activity- director for the State of Missouri at the Northwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, St. Joseph, MO. After retiring from there she was a bus driver for the Guidance Center and USD 409 here in Atchison. Lenora taught art and had a mural on the wall in the former Artist Box location. She was a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church where she enjoyed attending church and Bible Study. She also enjoyed playing pitch, going garage sale’ing looking for deer and mushroom hunting.

She was married to Phillip” Sonny” Cairo on June 28, 1986, at Trinity Lutheran Church. He survives of the home. Additional survivors include two sons Aaron (Kylee) Cairo, and Joshua Cairo, both of Atchison, KS, five step-daughters, Angie Cairo, and Meredith Scherer, both of Atchison, Christy (Derek) Noll, Horton, KS, Tina (J.R.) Bilderback, Atchison, KS, and Veronica Fultz, Huron, KS, two stepsons, Rick (Rhonda) Cairo, Atchison and Mike (Roberta) Cairo, Horton, KS, two brothers, Joseph E. Welch, Kansas City, MO and Charles D. Welch, St. Joseph, MO, a sister, Anita Niffen, Bowling Green, MO, twenty six grandchildren and twenty-six great grandchildren, several nieces, nephews, and cousins.

She was preceded in death by her parents, a stepson, Tony Cairo, siblings include a twin sister, Loretta E. (Welch) Keller, Robert L. Welch Jr., Bettie N. (Welch) Darby, Lillian Jeanette (Welch) Paxton, Wilma F. (Welch) Furgason, Michael G. Welch, Christina M. (Welch) Evans, nieces, Sheryl Welch, Margaret Niffen, Jennifer Niffen, and nephews, Robert Welch III, Glenn D Niffen.