Wanda Lee (Koger) Sloan

Emma Wanda Lee Koger Sloan passed away peacefully on Friday, October 27, 2023. She was born
February 11, 1925, in a log cabin on Koger’s mountain near Albany, Kentucky. She was the
daughter of Jesse and Pearl Stailey Koger, growing up with three sisters on a rural farm at
Cannons Mill, KY. When asked about childhood memories, she replied, “Polishing shoes with
biscuits, letting milk and butter cool in the creek, gathering eggs, visiting the flour mill, and
picking seeds out of cotton.”.

Wanda attended a one-room schoolhouse at Central Union, KY. During that time, she met the
love of her life, O’Ceola Sloan, he was 15 she was 12. Ceola and Wanda dated until his draft into
the Army Air Corps during World War II. Meanwhile, in November 1942, she played the lead
role in the senior play, “Sunbonnet Jane of Sycamore Lane,” and graduated from Clinton County
High School, Albany, KY in 1943.

After graduation, she contributed to the war effort by working at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber
Co., Akron, Ohio, as an aircraft parts inspector. While in Akron, she, and Ceola’s love letters
“crossed in the mail,” where both expressed their enduring love for one another. Wanda
traveled to see Ceola when he was home on leave, and he proposed. A short time later, she
joined her childhood sweetheart, Corporal Sloan, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida where they
were married on October 10, 1943.

When the war was over, she and Ceola joined other family members in New Castle, Indiana
where they raised four sons: John, Bob, Gary, and Tony. As a young stay-at-home wife and
mother, she learned the value of work, family, compassion, and caring for others, being as
resourceful as possible, and above all appreciating life’s simple pleasures like sitting on the
front porch swing every evening.

Wanda was active in civic affairs --the PTA, a den leader with the Cub Scouts, a hospital auxiliary
volunteer, serving on the election board and working in her church. She was an active member
of the First Church of the Nazarene, sang in the choir, was Cradle Roll and Nursery Supervisor, a
Sunday School teacher, and at the time of her passing was the oldest and longest attending
member of the church. She was a talented homemaker, a wonderful cook (famous within the
family for her chicken and dumplings), a seamstress, and later a successful purveyor of Empire
Crafts Nobility Prestige China. She won several national awards as a top salesperson for the
company.

A devoted wife, mother, sister, and grandmother, she absolutely loved being called Grandma,
Memaw, and GGMa by her grandchildren. She appreciated Psalm 139, saying, “This Psalm is so
very encouraging to know God takes care of us in all our ways. I think of my own life, through
my growing up years and how God directed my life, my marriage, gave us our home, guided us
in raising four sons, and how very proud I am of all of them. My family is my life, my love, my
hope.”


She is survived by three sons, Bob (Janet) Sloan, Gary (Christie Brown) Sloan, and Tony (Tonya)
Sloan; grandchildren Chris (Rachel) Sloan, Amy (Brad) Thomas, Sherri (Scott) Bohinc, Jerry (Kyle)
Sloan, Susan (Christopher) Shaw, Julia and Owen Sloan, and Laura and Sara Sloan. Great
grandchildren Logan, Ryan, and Tara Sloan; Ava, Landon, Braxton, and Bella Bohinc; Kai and
Cole Sloan; and William and Joseph Robert Shaw. Also, a half-brother Joe (Helen) Koger, half-
sister Janice Koger (Mike) Anderson, half-brother Gary (Karen) Koger, half-sister Anna Lorene
Duvall (Larry) Cox, former daughter-in-law Sandy Sloan, stepdaughter Dee Snider, nieces Linda
Houston, Donna Jean (Dennis) Kile, Barbara Sue (Bill) Ledbetter, Ruth Ann (John) LaLonde, and
nephews Terry (Linda) Cross, Larry (Lynn) Harding, and Darryl (Amy) Penticuff along with
numerous great nieces/nephews living throughout the United States including a very special
great niece Teresa Cross Brand.

Wanda was one of the last members of The Greatest Generation, and we shall not see the likes
of them again. She is predeceased by her beloved husband of 71 years O’Ceola, her first born
son, Lt Col John (Cara) Sloan, USAF (Ret), sisters and brothers-in-law Gwendolyn and Murl
Cross, Evelyn and Newman Craig, Kathleen and Joe King, nephews James Harold Cross, Norman
Dale and Suzzane Craig, Benny and Annette Cross, and half-brother Jerry Wayne Koger.

Burial will be in Central Grove Cemetery.