Donald Edwin Love was born July 4, 1927 in Partridge, Kansas to Edgar Clyde and Etta Hannah Ringer Love. He passed away January 6, 2020 in Overland Park, Kansas. Don grew up on a small farm northwest of Partridge. He attended a one-room country school for eight years and graduated from Partridge Rural High School in 1945. Immediately after graduation, he served nineteen months in the United States Army being deployed to Korea. Following discharge, he attended and graduated from Kansas State University.

Don was Assistant County Agent in Mitchell County, KS then moved to Mankato as County Agricultural Agent in Jewell County. After his brother Robert was drafted in 1953, he quit to take over his brother’s farming operation. He met his future wife, Helen Pelton Wiles, at K-State, and they were married November 26, 1954. Don became KSU Extension Service Balanced Farming and Living Agent in Cloud County in Concordia until moving to St Francis and assuming the role of Cheyenne County Agricultural Agent in 1956.

After seven years as county agent, he was hired as Manager of Real Estate Investments for the Travelers Insurance Company making farm and ranch loans and appraisals in NW Kansas, SW Nebraska and NE Colorado. He held this position for twenty-six years. In 1972, he became a licensed real estate broker in Kansas, and eventually a broker in Nebraska and Colorado. After retiring from Travelers, he owned and operated his own real estate business for eighteen years.

He was a life member and Past President of the Kansas Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, and a member of the National Rifle Association and Civil Air Patrol. He was an elder in the First Christian Church in St. Francis for many years. During his lifetime he enjoyed playing his guitar and singing for church and other groups in the area. He also enjoyed hunting, fishing, flying single engine aircraft but spending time with his family was the most important to him.

He is survived by his children, Peggy Pollock; Steve Love; Linda Zimmerman and her husband, Daniel; John Love and his wife Laura; Nancy Willey and her husband Verle; and, Julie Hinds and her husband Rodney. Grandchildren: Katie Thurman and her husband, Forrest, Lindsey Birch, Hannah and Mackenzie Zimmerman, Hunter and Taylor Hinds; five great grandchildren; sisters-in-law, Mary Love and Marilyn Porter and her husband Calvin, and numerous nieces and nephews.

He was proceeded in death by his parents, his wife, Helen Love, his brothers, Richard and Robert Love, Richard’s wife, Helen, son-in-law, Kerry Pollock and grandson, Willie Herndon.

Visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m., followed by funeral at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, January 11, at the First Christian Church, St. Francis, KS. Interment to follow at St. Francis Cemetery. Memorials may be given to the First Christian Church, Cheyenne County Kansas Community Foundation or the Cheyenne County 4-H Council.



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