Combined Obituary for Harry and Susan Lehew

Harry Dean Lehew (son of Joseph LeRoy and Clara Grace Lehew) was born on December 7th 1938 in Horton, Kansas. He grew up on his family's farm in Hiawatha, raised blue ribbon hogs for 4H Club, played football, and was high school class president. He attended Kansas State, where he was a member of the ATO fraternity. After graduating college, he moved to Denver where he met Susan Claire (born to Ivan and Claire Bryngelson on April 20, 1938), his future blue-eyed bride from Billings, Montana. They married in a Casper, Wyoming hospital on October 7, 1961—following a severe car accident that injured Harry's back prior to their previously planned nuptials.

When Susan was offered an elementary teacher position, they moved to Chicago. There, Harry received his MBA from Northwestern and worked for different ad agencies. After they had their two daughters, they relocated to Pennsylvania where Harry taught advertising for Penn State. They eventually landed in Minnesota where they lived for eight years and raised their daughters. Harry's career brought them to various states in the Midwest (and back to Pennsylvania), visiting Hiawatha for Lehew family yearly reunions. Once their first grandkids were born, they relocated back to Minnesota, where they worked and taught and eventually retired, spending the remainder of their lives close to family. After Susan died suddenly of heart complications in December of 2020, Harry moved in with his eldest daughter and son-in law. Harry passed away, surrounded by family, from an aggressive pancreatic cancer on home hospice. He reunited with his forever sweetheart in heaven, before sunrise, on Valentine's Day of 2023. Harry and Susan are preceded in death by both sets of parents and siblings, and many extended family members. They are survived by their daughters, Cynthia Kay (Nehrbass) and Catherine Marie (Wines), their two son-in-laws (both named Jeff), 4 grandchildren (Sarah, Jacob, Zakary, and Elijah), a sister-in-law (Judy Bryngelson), many beloved cousins, nieces, nephews and friends. They are, and always will be greatly missed for their unconditional love, devotion to family, encouragement, compassion, and their warm hugs, bright smiles, and senses of humor.

Harry and Susan's ashes will be interred together, in a graveside service for family and friends at Hiawatha Cemetery, on Friday, May 23, 2025, at 3:00 pm. There will be an open fellowship to immediately follow, at 4:00 pm, in the fellowship hall of Bethany United Church of Christ: 303 N. 6th St., in Hiawatha, Kansas.