Eldon Ray Penner was born to Denver and Naomi Penner on April 16, 1961, in Morris, Manitoba. He passed away peacefully at South Texas Hospice Center in Victoria on Dec. 1, 2022, at the age of 61. As a young boy his family moved to St. Mary’s, Ontario. Dad talked of many happy and eventful memories from his childhood and youth years. At the age of 12 he was baptized into the Church of God in Christ Mennonite by Min. Paul Toews. On a family trip to Mexico, they stopped in the El Campo area to visit friends. Dad fell in love with the warmth of the area and, in his late teens, decided to move here to work. His parents and siblings followed his move soon after, and dad enjoyed South Texas for the rest of his life. Dad spent the first year’s land leveling as a way to get to his dream and passion of electrical work. The family started to notice dad taking a special interest in his youngest sister’s education one year. In no time he was engaged to be married to that brown-eyed girl that was her teacher! He married mom, Teresa Koehn, on Easter Sunday in 1984. God blessed them with 2 sons and 2 daughters.
No matter where life took dad, it was never long before he was back to the electrical work he learned in his youth. He started Penner Electric and enjoyed the many challenges of solving problems with out of the box solutions. He loved to work and was ready to teach anyone who wanted to learn electrical work. There are quite a few young men that can tell of learning about electricity from dad’s teaching; one of these, Jerry Koehn, started working with dad at the age of 13. Mom and dad accepted Jerry as one of their own children. As we grew older, dad decided to sell Penner Electric to raise us on the farm. We moved to the Danevang area to the fish farm and quickly learned that, while dad enjoyed many things in life, farming fish was not on the list! Through all the adjustments of learning how to farm fish dad always enjoyed his cattle herd. After several years, our family sold the fish farm and moved to Louise to establish a ranch. Many more memories were made converting row crop to pasture. During this time dad decided to, once again, start doing some electrical work from the shop on the ranch. Hobo Electric was soon a name he was proud of.
It was always very important to dad to plant trees and have an established yard no matter where we lived. Trees, cattle ranching, and electrical work were how dad chose to teach us many life lessons. As most of you who know the Penner clan will attest, teasing is pretty much just another way of saying “I like you” and we don’t have to wonder who we learned that from!
Dad and mom both enjoyed being active in our community as well as in the Church. At the age of 30, dad was called to be a deacon and put his heart in this, as he did with everything. It was very important to dad that we children would come to personally know and serve God and His Church. Dad was asked to serve on the Gospel Tract Board, from which he traveled to various countries around the world. For a number of years this was his passion. He gave freely of his time and enjoyed seeing the Gospel being spread.
After all of us children had left home, dad became discouraged and followed a selfish path. While these were sad years for our family, we never stopped praying that God would allow dad a second chance. In the summer of 2021, dad became sick, and found out he had cancer. Dad began the fight to get well and began to pray for spiritual healing. Our hearts are overwhelmed with gratitude to God, who never stopped calling dad and was waiting to forgive. Once again, dad answered the call, and we were able to have a period of several months to heal our family. Dad left a clear testimony of the salvation that only comes from God. While it hurts to say goodbye, our hearts are comforted in knowing that, as we remain faithful, we will be reunited with dad in Heaven.
Dad is survived by his wife, Teresa. His children, Paula and Kyle Johnson of Lakin, Kas; Dallas and Heidi of Montezuma, Kas; Nicole and Andy Reimer of Ringwood, Okla; Denver and Amelia of Louise; Jerry and Yolanda Koehn of Louise. Fifteen grandchildren, his mom, his siblings, Lyndale and Carolyn Penner of Fountain Run, Ky; Starla Koehn of Golty, Okla; Shirley Penner of Fountain Run, Ky; and Bonnie and Jeff Koehn of Ringwood, Okla.
He is preceded in death by his dad, his mother in law Glennis Koehn, and a brother-in-law Doug Koehn.
Visitation will be from 4-6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5 at Triska Funeral Home. Funeral services begin 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, at First Baptist Church in El Campo. Burial will follow at Garden of Memories Cemetery.
Triska Funeral Home, El Campo • 543-3681.
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