Laurie Kay Neumann

How does one compress a loved one's life into several paragraphs? 

It is an impossible task, especially for her husband of 47 years.

But since you are reading this, you must be interested in the life and death of my wife, Laurie Aasness Neumann.

First and foremost, Laurie was in love with a man named Jesus. 

Her faith and devotion to Him and His word were consistent and strong. 

She believed in what Jesus said and passed that on to her children and grandchildren.  She is now in glory, forever changed and sanctified, receiving the reward that was purchased for her by Jesus on the cross.

Laurie was born in Fargo, North Dakota on January 8th, 1955. 

She passed away peacefully at her home on June 19th, 2025, at the age of 70.  

She shared her childhood with her younger sisters, Karen and Tammy. 

Her parents were teachers, and they moved constantly during her upbringing. She lived in many different towns and cities within North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and California. She was always the "new girl" in school. A childhood of stability and consistency was something she did not know.

Laurie moved to Groton, South Dakota, in the summer of 1971. 

I remember seeing the "new girl" by the swimming pool that summer. 

She was 16 and beautiful.

She was a very intelligent and determined person. When she made up her mind on what to do, she made it happen.  

After her Junior year at Groton High School, she decided to skip her senior year and go to South Dakota State University. She desired to be independent of the lifestyle to which she was accustomed. Thus, to achieve this, she set her sights on a professional career and aimed to become a pharmacist.  

Her plan seemed to be going as planned until she fell in love with yours truly. I attended USD in Vermillion, and the long-distance relationship was too much for us both, so after 3.5 years of pharmacy school, she transferred to USD and got her accounting degree.  

With her professional plan intact, we married on December 30th, 1977, just 10 days after graduating from college.  

We moved to Bozeman, Montana, where she quickly obtained her CPA license and started her accounting career.  Everything was going as she had planned!

We moved to Visalia, California, to advance her career in January 1980.

She was now hitting on all cylinders.

Her goal of being a successful, independent career woman was happening..........But God had other plans for her.

Then something happened. She had an encounter with two people: Jesus and her newborn son, Jacob. 

Her perspective on life totally changed.

She quit her career as a CPA, taking that desire and energy for corporate life and transforming it into the devotion and love of being a stay-at-home wife and mother.

The next few words encompass the bulk of her wonderful life.  

For the following 30 years, she raised and homeschooled our three children from kindergarten through high school. Not quite what she had planned. God had more important things in store for her life. Yet every goal that she desired was achieved and more. She obtained the stability and consistency in her life she always desired, as we lived in the same home in California for almost 30 years! God fulfilled all that she desired in her heart; it just came through a way she did not expect.

My sister-in-law once told me, "Want to make God laugh? Just tell Him your plans."  We may think we can plan every aspect of our lives, but Proverbs 19:21 says, "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand."

A short time after our daughter Emily graduated and married, Laurie was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought it with all her might for 11.5 years. She went through countless treatments and many surgeries.     

Her courage and determination mirrored the qualities she demonstrated throughout her life. She was an inspiration to everyone who knew her.

She is survived by her husband, Mark; her children, Jacob (Emily Conlin), Jeffrey (Jordyn Neumann) and Emily (Zach Engelhart); her grandchildren, Armand, Emelyn and Evie Engelhart; and her sisters and brother, Karen Aasness, Tammy Saxe, and Craig Snedden.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

1 Peter 1:3-5 (ESV)

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