Max H. Lednum
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Max's obituary
Max Lednum, 98, of Asheville, NC, died at his home on January 17, 2023, where he was under the care of hospice. He is survived by his children, David (Mary) Lednum, Sharon (Garroll) Purvis, and Carolyn Lednum; and grandchildren, Nathaniel Jehlen, Rachel (Ian) McDermod, and Jamison Lednum. He is preceded in death by his parents, Floyd and Grace Eaks Lednum, and his wife of 60 years, Elise Medlin Lednum, who died on November 2, 2021.
A funeral service will be held at 4:00 p.m. on February 5th at the Asheville VFW on Leicester Highway.
Max was born in Noblesville, Indiana, on November 25, 1924, to Floyd and Grace Eaks Lednum. Although he was born in town while his father had a job at a filling station, he came from a long line of farmers, and his parents returned to farming in 1936, when Max was 12. Outside of his time in the military during World War II, Max and his father continued to farm that land until he and his young family left Indiana for good in 1972.
He graduated from Noblesville High School in 1943, and in the spring of 1945 he was drafted into the U.S. Army for basic training. In November of that year, he was shipped to Europe to serve in the Allied Occupation Forces in Germany. He served for six months in the German Occupation, and for a short time he volunteered to work in the vehicle maintenance shop, where he was the acting Motor Sergeant. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1946 at the age of 21.
In 1961, he met a young nursing student, Elise Medlin, whom he married in August of that year. Elise and Max settled down on Max’s farm in Noblesville, where their three children were born: David in 1965, Sharon in 1966, and Carolyn in 1969.
In addition to becoming a husband at age 36 and father at 40, he took on an important role that would take him far from Indiana: supporter of his wife’s goals and dreams. A man of quiet faith, Max worked alongside his wife throughout his life in support of causes that were important to both of them—various church activities, Child Evangelism Fellowship, and the Hispanic ministry Elise started, among other things.
In 1972, Max and Elise moved with their three young children to Durango, Colorado, where they owned and operated the Alpine North Motel as well as two mini-storage businesses. In 1975, Elise and Max, through the Christian Service Corps, went to Peru for two years, where Elise worked as a nurse and Max served doing whatever work needed to be done—from building and maintenance to gardening and raising chickens. The family returned from Peru and stayed in Durango for another two years before moving to Asheville, North Carolina in 1978, where they remained.
While he didn’t return to farming, he and Elise bought a piece of property that allowed him to have some cows and a large garden in Asheville. Max worked at Alan Shaw Company as a locksmith from 1978 to 2014, when he finally retired at age 89. He was a lifelong reader, devouring books of history and western stories as well as the classics and just about any book his family gave him. Well into his 90s, Max kept himself busy in his basement workshop, making wood crafts that he sold at local craft fairs.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to 4-H or South America Mission.
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