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Lois Copeland Obituary

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Lois Copeland

Orrville, OH

October 9, 1936 - March 11, 2023

Lois Copeland Obituary

Anna “Lois” Zimmerly Copeland of Elyria, Ohio died peacefully on Saturday, March 11th, 2023. She was born in Orrville, Ohio on October 9, 1936 to Velma Olive Steiner Zimmerly and Aldine J. Zimmerly. She grew up with her older brother Glenn and younger sisters Eileen and Esther on the family farm.  She joined Crown Hill Mennonite Church as a young person.  


As a child, she enjoyed playing in the fields and in the stream and in the barn with her Steiner cousins and her Zimmerly cousins. She attended Smithville Schools and graduated in 1954. She went on to Goshen College with her cousin Ruth Zimmerly Kurtz. Her first teaching job was in Orrville City Schools.  Together with Ruth and other friends she taught in Holmes County.  The friendships with other teachers she developed there, continued through a circle letter that passed around the group for more than 60 years.


Lois completed her education with a master's degree in special education with a focus on the visually impaired from George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee. While in graduate school, she became a reader for another graduate student in social work who was blind. Through many hours of reading textbooks, she fell in love with Philip R Copeland.


She became a pioneering recipient of a cornea transplant at the Cleveland Clinic in 1968.


Lois and Phil married on June 21, 1969. After a time in North Carolina they moved to Elyria, Ohio where Lois taught children with learning disabilities in the Lorain County Public Schools until her retirement in 1989.


Over the years Lois and Phil traveled extensively by train across the United States, Canada, and in Europe. Through all of their many travels, Phil planned the itineraries while Lois vividly described all that she saw to her husband.


Lois Copeland was a founding member of Peace Mennonite Church in Elyria. Throughout their marriage, Lois and Phil alternated Sundays between the Mennonite Church and Phil's Catholic Church. Lois grew to love and appreciate both faith traditions.


She was preceded in death by both her parents; her younger sister, Esther; her brother, Glenn, and by her sister, Eileen.  She leaves behind her husband Philip R. Copeland and many nieces and nephews residing in Ohio, Ontario, Alberta, West Virginia, Washington DC,  and California


Friends may call on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am at Crown Hill Mennonite Church, 9693 Benner Road, Rittman.


Services will be held on Wednesday, March 15, 2023,at 11:00 am at the church, with Pastor Thomas Dunn and Pastor Dan Hooley officiating. Burial will take place at the Crown Hill Mennonite Cemetery in Rittman. There will be a light meal in the fellowship hall following the burial.


Memorials may be made to Mennonite Central Committee 21 South 12th St P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500 https://mcc.org/.


Auble Funeral Home in Orrville is handling the arrangements. Online registry and expressions of condolence may be made at www.aublefuneralhome.com.


To share a memory or send a condolence gift, please visit the Official Obituary of Lois Copeland hosted by Auble Funeral Home.

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Event information can be found on the Official Obituary of Lois Copeland.