Cleo D Haynes

Cleo D Haynes age 81, of Callaway, NE passed away Wednesday, July 3, 2019, at the Callaway Good Life Center in Callaway, NE.

Cleo Dee Haynes left her bed at the Callaway Good Life Center the morning of July 3rd, at 5:10 am, to spend her 81st birthday in Heaven with Jesus. She came into this world on the exact same date in 1938, the second born child of Edith and Wilson Richards of Sargent.

Cleo was born in Ansley, NE but spent most of her childhood years in Sargent.

Cleo’s childhood was filled with a love of music, fishing expeditions to rivers and ponds with her mother Edith and sister Joyce, and two younger brothers Kenneth and Dennis.

For those who knew Cleo later in her life, maybe it is hard to imagine her catching night-crawlers in the rain, or frogs in the river so her mother could cook up a delicious batch of frog legs. These were the days of that made some of the best childhood moments for her.

Some of her fondest memories were of sitting on the side of a river, cloud watching or reading books as her mother fished. A country girl, in love with nature.

Cleo and her siblings had a natural love of music. They often sang at weddings and funeral. Cleo loved to sing and play the piano, but never learned how to read music! She always played by ear.

In fact, she and her sister Joyce and brother Denny produced and recorded an album of their favorite hymns, Precious Memories by the Richards Trio.

After graduating from Sargent High School in 1956, she attended Nebraska Christian College for 2 years and received a teaching certificate and taught briefly at a couple of country schools.

But it was when she started her summer job pulling trees at the Bessey Nursery in Halsey, that she caught the eye of a Sandhill’s cowboy, Floyd Haynes of Purdum, NE. 

She married the love of her life on December 20, 1959. Cleo and Floyd spent nearly 50 years in Halsey, NE.

Floyd and Cleo started a family in 1961 with the birth of their son, Mark Lee; the second, Emory Lynn in ‘63; the third Doris Nadine in ‘64; and the fourth, Monte Wade in ‘67. 

She is survived by her husband, Floyd Haynes of Callaway, her children and their spouses, Mark and Rhonda Haynes, and Emory and Susan Haynes of Broken Bow, her daughter Doris and Masahiro Matsukawa of Kawasaki, Japan, and her son Monte Haynes (unmarried) of Fullerton, NE.

They also have eight grandchildren and their spouses: Clinton and Megan Haynes, Leigh and Mathew Stutzman, Christine and Tommy Tran, Jason and Tabitha Haynes, Minji Haynes; Kenta, Alissa, and Erika Matsukawa, and 10 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Edith and Wilson Richards of Sargent, her brother Dennis Richards of Arizona.

Memorial services will be Saturday, July 6, 2019, at 11:00 a.m. at the Callaway Community Church in Callaway, NE with Pastor Lee Wonch officiating. Burial will be at 3:00 p.m. in the Custer Center Cemetery northwest of Broken Bow, NE. Govier Brothers Mortuary are in charge of arrangements. Online condolences can be left at www.govierbrothers.com.