Cecile Lee Hertzberg

Cecile Lee Hertzberg

July 26, 1932 – June 12, 2025

Buckner, Missouri

Cecile Lee (Mann) Hertzberg, aged 92, passed away peacefully on June 12, 2025 at Benton House of Blue Springs. Cecile Lee was born on July 26, 1932 in Buckner, Missouri to Frances (Harra) and Cecil Mann. She grew up in Buckner, working hard on the farm where she was raised and enjoying the company of the barn cats and assorted farm animals. She attended Sunny Nook School for her elementary years and graduated from Halls Memorial High School in Buckner where her favorite subject was Home Economics and favorite activity was the school choir.

Cecile Lee attended Southwest Baptist College in Bolivar, Missouri and graduated from Central Missouri State University in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science in Education. She taught elementary school at Plum Grove Elementary in Pleasant Hill, Missouri and Mason Elementary in Lee’s Summit, Missouri before marrying Dale Hertzberg in 1959.

Dale and Cecile Lee established a home in Lee’s Summit, where she was a strong and devoted homemaker. While staying home to raise her two daughters, Cecile Lee operated a preschool in her basement. When her children were older, she returned to teaching at Hazel Grove Elementary School in Lee’s Summit, retiring in 1986.

In 1988, Cecile Lee and Dale moved to Buckner to a house that they designed and helped to build on land that was successively owned by five generations of her family.

Cecile Lee was a faithful member of the First Baptist Churches in Lee’s Summit and Buckner, where she taught adult and children’s Sunday School and sang in the choir. Cecile Lee was well-versed in scripture and took study courses to become a state approved children’s worker through the Missouri Baptist Convention. She spent many fulfilling years volunteering through community organizations to help those who were less fortunate. In her retirement years Cecile Lee was a member of an Extension Club and a book club that she helped organize. Her other interests included traveling, drawing, gardening, music and cooking.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her brother Robert Mann. She is survived by her daughters Lynn Aladeen (Scott) and Lee Alevy (Jeff), her grandchildren, Traci Aladeen (Dan Kelly), Joe Aladeen and B.A. Sizemore (Magdalena) and great grandchildren, Lincoln Kelly and Evangeline Kelly.

The Hertzberg family extends thanks to the staff of Benton House Blue Springs for the excellent care, love and friendship extended to Cecile Lee during her last years of life. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m., Friday, June 20, 2025 at First Baptist Church, Buckner, MO. Burial will follow in Buckner Hill Cemetery. The family will greet friends from 10:00 a.m., until service time Friday at the church. In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests donations be made to first Baptist Church, Buckner, MO. May she rest in peace.