Keith Luce

Keith Luce, 56, died at his home Wednesday, February 6, 2008. A celebration of life will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, February 10, 2008 at Hamilton’s on Westown Parkway.
Keith was born July 15, 1951 in Des Moines to Keith and Annabelle Luce. He was raised by his father, Keith and stepmother, Marilyn. Keith served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He was a master electrician and owned and operated Phoenix Electric until his retirement in 1994. After retirement he attended DMACC and Drake University. Keith loved the Iowa State Fair and was a volunteer for many years. He was a craftsman, enjoyed playing online poker and went to the movies every Friday afternoon.
Keith is survived by his wife of 30 years, Sandra Knox; his children, Brian (Ashley) Luce and their sons, Kollin and Houston, Cynthia (James) McLaughlin and their daughter, Rachel, Kimberly (Jed) Schmidt and their daughters, Emma and Ava, and Todd (Stacey) Ryan and their children, Bryce, Brenden and Brandy; step-daughter, Tiffani (Bill) Knapp and their children, Cody, Taylor and Connor, and his sisters, Pam Ryan, Kim Brandt, Kelly Cockerham and Debbie Seene. He was preceded in death by his parents; his son, Adam Luce; and niece, Brandy Ryan.
Papa Luce will be deeply missed by his family, especially his grandchildren whom he loved and adored.

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Diane and Bill Schaefer

02/11/2008

Keith was our neighbor - he lived across the street from us. We appreciated so very much about Keith. He was our neighborhood "watch" - we always felt very safe and secure knowing that Keith was home all day and kept an eye on our place.
Keith loved growing tomatoes and peppers. We swapped stories about the size of our tomatoes. One of my many fond gardening memories of Keith was the day he made me tomato cages - BIG cages and SIX of them! What a gift. I store them in the garage every fall and use them every summer. It will be a great reminder of Keith, every season that I bring them out for use.
He liked to snitch seeds - and then he couldn't stand it - he would have to tell me he snitched some of my morning glory seeds or whatever. funny! I would laugh and laugh. Sandy always wanted some of my hollyhock plants - and Keith would never let her have any! He said they were too messy. I secretly wonder if Keith snuck over and plucked some of the yellow hollyhock seeds. I'll never know.
Keith always would stop and chat when he was walking the dogs (and the cat!), we'd swap stories, complain about the weather, or gripe about the city or the cars that drove too fast up and down North Union. Keith also knew scoop about a lot of the neighbors, so we would share those stories also.
I always felt badly that Keith was so ill; it would have been fun to have known him when he was healthy - I bet he was a total blast! He always kept his good spirits, however, and that was another gift he gave to us all - the gift of gratefulness, of patience, of acceptance. He loved his family, his dogs (and cat), his red pick up truck (!), his house, and yes, his neighbors.
I will so very much miss Keith - especially when the weather turns warm and we are all outside more often. I'll miss his "Hi, Diane" yelled across the street in almost a sing-song style, his friendly wave, his ever present smile, and always his stories.
We are glad Keith is at peace now. God rest his soul.
Diane and Bill Schaefer

Laura Stewart

02/11/2008

Hi guys,
I wish I would've been more "together" yesterday, I would've loved to have shared a memory of Keith for the memory box-- I guess I just will miss his sense of humor-- much like my dad's, and I will always remember how he'd stop over in the floral dept. to say hi when I worked there at HyVee, and we'd usually have time to chit chat about teachers we had from DMACC, and he would always refer to me as honey or sweetie, etc. He just reminded me of my dad, and I know he meant an awful lot to our family, especially my dad. He really will be missed. Who knows if we will all still be at the Luce reunions now, but I really hope we can all still keep in touch-- my email is designsby_laura@yahoo.com PLEASE keep in touch and maybe we can get together once in awhile-- I'd love to have Alex & Emma get a chance to play together sometime since he rarely gets interaction with other kids since I'm a work-at-home mom and he's with me all day every day! Take care everyone and hopefully talk to you soon!
Love
Laura =)