Jerri Leona Hite

Jerri Leona Hite, 95 passed into the arms of her Lord on Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Albuquerque, NM at the age of ninety-five with the loving care of Albuquerque’s BeeHive Homes and Roadrunner Healthcare Services. She was born in Amarillo, Texas on April 3, 1930, to Charles Peeler Herd and Lela Mae Caldwell Herd. She married Wilbur Horace Hite on February 14, 1950, in Garfield, Arkansas, and he preceded her in death in 1998. Topeka, Kansas was her home from the middle 1950s until the very last year which was spent in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jerri worked for the State of Kansas in administrative roles, retiring in the early 1990s. Not to settle down, she joined the Topeka Reserve Police Corps and became the very first Reserve Sargent. She then rose to the rank of Lieutenant before retiring from that role in the mid-1990s.

Jerri enjoyed horses and dogs all her life. She loved her many friends and her church. She was a devoted member of the Topeka Church of the Brethren, and she volunteered in outreach activities with them and with others. Everyone knew her dry humor full of wit and even an occasional harmless prank.

Jerri is survived by Marilyn Hite, her sister-in-law, and ten nieces and nephews, all children of her husband, Bill’s, brothers, and sister. She will be interred at the West Lawn Memorial Gardens cemetery in Topeka, Kansas. Funeral and Interment arrangements are pending and will be handled by the Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home in Topeka, Kansas.