Ken Keeney

Funeral services for Ken Keeney, 75, of Milo, will be held Thursday, November 16, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. at the Fairview Community Church, 19705 US HWY – 69, Indianola, Iowa 50125. Burial will be at the Belmont Cemetery near Milo following the service.

Family will receive friends on Wednesday evening, November 15th, from 4:00 until 7:00 p.m. at the Pierschbacher Funeral Home in Milo.

Memorials in Ken’s honor may be made to the Fairview Community Church or to “Thugging to Loving” - www.communityfoundationforinspiredgiving.org, both Christian causes near his heart.

Kenneth Ernest Keeney, born March 26, 1948, in Indianola, to Arthur and Frances Burrus Keeney. He grew up alongside his sister, Marian, in Warren and Marion counties. He attended school in Beech, Milo, and Pleasantville, graduating with the Pleasantville High School Class of 1966.

Ken enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on Senior Skip Day. The day following high school graduation, he left for boot camp in California. He served in the Marines from 1966 until 1970. Ken was stationed in Vietnam from September 1967 to December 1968, during the Tet Offensive. He was assigned to the VMA AW 242 at Da Nang Airbase. He worked on A6 attack jets on the flight line. Upon his return to the States, he was stationed at Cherry Point, North Carolina. After his honorable discharge in May 1970, he lived in Maryland and worked in the rail yards in Brunswick. Returning to Warren County a year later, he used the G.I. Bill to attend Lincoln Tech in Des Moines. He received training in auto mechanics and worked at Querrey Motors in Osceola. During this time, he was encouraged to pursue a job opening with the Indianola Police Department. He was hired in 1974 and spent many shifts patrolling the courthouse square and a two-block radius, noting it was the same groups of kids every weekend.

Ken was invited to the Fairview Christian Union Church where he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. Through involvement in church, he met Mary Lynn Wright at a State Youth Group. His laugh caught her attention, and she caught his eye. They were married June 21, 1975, and were blessed with two children: Daniel and Sarah. In 1980, he became a deputy for the Warren County Sheriff's Office. This change enabled him to pursue farming while still allowing him to be a public servant. He started in patrol, worked up to detective, and retired in 2003 as night sergeant. During all his years as an officer, with the help of his family, he found time for his true passion on the farm, raising cattle and producing hay. Ken said many times that it could not have been done without them. You would often find him on his beloved John Deere 3020, which he claimed was the secret to all his success.

His love was for his family, and he wholeheartedly supported any endeavor or interest they were pursuing. If you were excited about something, that made him equally excited for whatever that was. He was always positive and supportive in their lives. He enjoyed "walk-abouts" as he called them, which were little road trips to see the countryside. He enjoyed pickup basketball games with the kids, playing pitch whenever a deck of cards was tossed his way, and beating ol’ Sol (solitaire). He followed NASCAR racing and liked riding motorcycles. Muscle cars were always a passion of his, especially GTOs. Each car came with quite a story and adventure of how it became his. With that being said, every new endeavor Ken had always produced countless stories and memories.

In the last few years of his life, after a strong calling from the Lord, he started a ministry in which he passed out Hershey candy bars as a way to spread the Good News to people that he came in contact with. Whether it was with Terry on a Friday afternoon in the church parking lot or at the VA facility for each cancer treatment, he was always willing to give out chocolate bars and say “God loves you!”

Ken passed away at home surrounded by family on Friday, November 10, 2023. Fitting that this is the Marine Corps Birthday, a day which he always celebrated. He will be greatly missed by his wife of 48 years, Mary Lynn Keeney; son, Daniel (Casey) Keeney; daughter, Sarah (Matthew) Hansen; grandchildren, Logan Keeney and Megan Keeney; sister, Marian Griffin; and many nieces, nephews, relatives, and friends.

Preceding him in death were his parents, Arthur and Frances Keeney; infant grandson, Samuel Hansen; and brother-in-law, John Griffin.

Mary Lynn, Daniel, Sarah and all of the family would like to express their deep gratitude for the care and compassion that Ken received at the VA Central Iowa Campus in Des Moines, most notably the Oncology Department.