Laura M. Blakesley

Laura Mae (Bunten) Blakesley, formerly of Sioux City, passed away peacefully in her sleep, at her home in Oceanside, Calif., after celebrating her 85th birthday on Nov. 4, 2013.
Visitation will be 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Morningside Chapel, Christy-Smith Funeral Home in Sioux City. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery.
Laura Mae "Sis" (Bunten) Blakesley, the daughter of Howard (Lee) and Helen (Drummond) Bunten, was born in Omaha on Nov. 4, 1928. She graduated from Central High School in Sioux City with the mid-year class of 1947. She attended Morningside College with the Conservatory of Music Program. She also worked at Northwest Bell Telephone Co. in Sioux City.
Laura was united in marriage with William "Bill" Edwin Blakesley on Feb. 3, 1951, at Morningside Presbyterian Church. She transferred with the phone company to Iowa City, Iowa. After her husband’s graduation from college, they moved to southern California. After raising her family, she went back to work as a telephone operator with Pacific Bell Telephone Co. After retiring in 1985, she continued with her lifelong passion of playing the piano and giving piano lessons.
Those left to honor Laura’s memory are her son, Greg and Salli Jo Blakesley; her sister, Shirley and Richard Mielke of Newton, Iowa; and her four grandchildren, Colin, Allegra, Sam and Anna.
She was preceded in death by her husband, William Edwin Blakesley in 1998; and her oldest son, Gary Lee Blakesley in 2009