Ila Lecher was born at the Gregory Homestead, south of Chadron on the table, on September 10, 1913. She was the fourth of twelve children born to Ned and Eva Gregory, of which seven survived. She attended Prairie Home School either on Horseback or by horse and buggy. After completing the 8th grade, she worked for various households on the table, cooking and cleaning, as was the norm for young girls her age. She married Weston Brown in 1931 and their daughter, Imogene was born the following year. They then moved to Lame Deer, Montana. Ila and Imogene returned to Chadron, and Ila worked for Model Laundry & Dry Cleaners for many years. She later worked for Deluxe Cleaners.

 

Ila married Albert Lecher in 1950. During this time, she survived a brain tumor operation, and she also had successful ear surgery on both ears. Finally, she was able to hear the Lawrence Welk show to which she listened faithfully until her 90’s.

 

After her divorce, she moved to her house on Mears Street. There, she enjoyed gardening, canning, making jelly, and she began attending the dances at the VFW. It was at one of these dances that she met Carl Peterson, who became her companion for 26 years until his death in 2007. Ila’s house was where everyone gathered before the Halloween dances to put on their costumes and masks. Ila loved those dances and she was a very good dancer. In 1991, she moved to the West Hills Villa Apartments. Ila loved to “go north” to Prairie Wind Casino. She was unbelievably lucky and won, literally, thousands of dollars there. She and Pete loved their families and enjoyed visits from their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great-great grandchildren, as well as nieces and nephews. 

 

In December of ’98, she was put on a Flight for Life to Rapid City and she survived a stomach aneurysm. While up there, they found a heart blockage. So six weeks later, she had a quadruple heart bypass. She put up two batches of chokecherry jelly this summer all by herself and she cooked the Thanksgiving turkey. Except for bouts of pneumonia, she  remained in fairly good health until her fall on Christmas night, in her apartment, which broke her hip. She survived the surgery, but suffered from complications following the surgery.

She was preceded in death by her parents, 9 brothers and sisters, 1 grandson-in-law, I niece, 1 great-niece and her companion, Carl “Pete” Peterson.