LaVerne Harold Shafer, 91, of Cherokee, Iowa and former long- time Cleghorn area resident, passed away Saturday, December 14, 2013 at Heartland Care Center in Marcus, Iowa.

Funeral services will be held Wednesday, December 18th, at 2 p.m. at the Oakdale Evangelical Free Church, rural Meriden, Iowa. Pastor Clint Hogrefe will officiate. Burial will be in Liberty Cemetery, north of Meriden. There will be a family prayer service at 1:45 p.m. at the Church on Wednesday. Visitation will be on Tuesday from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the Boothby Funeral Home in Cherokee with the family present from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. On line condolences may be left at www.boothbyfuneral.com

LaVerne was born November 23, 1922 at Cleghorn, Iowa to Carl and Etta (Smith) Shafer. He graduated from Cleghorn High School in the class of 1940. He was married to Doris Lundell on August 29, 1944 at Cleghorn, Iowa. LaVerne farmed in the Cleghorn area all his life. He fed cattle and founded Shafer Formula Company that developed feed additives for beef and dairy cattle. He was a shareholder and Board of Director for Agro-K Corporation of Minneapolis since the company's inception. He was a member of the Oakdale Evangelical Free Church. He enjoyed following his children and grandchildren's school activities. LaVerne & Doris enjoyed traveling, especially their trip to Hawaii and Europe; and 20 years of wintering in Arizona.

He was preceded in death by his parents, a son-in-law Gordon A. Anderson, a brother Ralph Shafer, sister-in-law Nena Shafer, brother and sister-in-law Richard and Mary Lundell.

He is survived by his wife Doris of Marcus, Iowa; 4 children; Larry Shafer and his wife Sue of Plymouth, Minnesota; Beverly Skarulis and her husband Frank of Buffalo Grove, Illinois;
Joleen Anderson of Rembrandt, Iowa; Karl Shafer of Palm Springs, California; 7 grandchildren, Emily Shafer, Drew (Jammie) Shafer, Eric (Amanda) Shafer, Brett Shafer, Jason Anderson, Rebekah Anderson, David Skarulis; 4 great grandchildren; William, Calvin, Aviel and Millie Rose Shafer, several nieces and nephews.