Verna M. (McNaughton) Weber, age 100, passed away on December 7, 2025, at Northcrest Community in Ames, Iowa.
Verna was born in Hinton, Iowa on October 31, 1925, to Clifford and Bertha (Hoffman) McNaughton. She and her sister Doris grew up on a farm. After graduating valedictorian from Jefferson South Dakota High, she took business classes and got a job in Sioux City, Iowa.
In 1946 she married W. Wayne Weber after he returned from service in World War II, and they settled down on his family's farm. They had two daughters, Peggy and Jeanne.
Eventually, the family left the farm life. While Wayne used his education in the Armed Services to develop a non-farm career, Verna managed the home and took care of their children. The family lived in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Paducah, Kentucky before settling down in Ames, Iowa. While Wayne pursued advanced degrees and taught at Iowa State University, Verna also worked at Iowa State. For many years she was a secretary and office manager for the head of the Institution Management Department in the Home Economics College at ISU.
Verna will be remembered for her hard work both at home and in business positions throughout her life, her commitment to her family, and her curiosity. She was a wonderful homemaker, teaching her daughters how to cook and making a home wherever the family lived. Verna was an avid, creative, and curious cook. She collected cookbooks, watched cooking shows, and took cooking classes.
She and Wayne loved to travel by car in the United States, visiting friends and relatives and stopping to explore different parts of the country. One trip Verna particularly enjoyed was a trip to the Bybee Pottery company in Bybee, Kentucky. At the time of their visit, the company gave tours through the pottery shop that had survived six generations and the Civil War. Taking tea with Verna's collection of Bybee cups became a beloved tradition in the Weber family.
Throughout her life, Verna developed many pastimes, including golf, yoga, playing the piano, and big projects of needlepoint and crocheting. She was a devoted bird watcher, especially fond of cardinals, wrens, and hummingbirds.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, W. Wayne Weber, on October 22, 2006; grandson Benjamin Covault; sister Doris I. Dreager and husband Harold; niece Nancy Ueckert (Ron).
She is survived by her daughters Jeanne Weber of Eagle, Idaho, and Peggy Weber (John Carella) of Willoughby Hills, Ohio; grandson Jonathan Covault of Eagle, Idaho; nieces and nephews: Tim Dreager, Susan Ueckert (Keith), Kevin Dreager (Charlene); grand- nieces and nephews.

Her beautiful smile will be greatly missed.

"...Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. ... This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
--- Ralph Waldo Emerson