DES MOINES, Iowa — Royce Allen Walburn died Monday, May 27, 2024, at his farm in Mercer, Missouri. Royce will be buried at Lake Belt Cemetery, rural Ceylon, Minn., close to the Fenrich/Nelson Family farm in Martin County, Minn. Graveside services will be held 1 p.m. Saturday, June 1, 2024.

Royce was born Jan. 17, 1950, in Popular Bluff, Mo. He graduated from Ravanna High School in 1969. After high school, he attended trade school and studied electronics in West Des Moines, Iowa.

He met Roberta Nelson while going to school and they were married on Dec. 27, 1970. They made their home in Des Moines Iowa, where he worked for Ford Manufacturing, Massey Ferguson Manufacturing and John Deere Manufacturing, He returned to school and took an electrician course at Creston Community College. He then attended Jackson Community College in Jackson, Minn. where he studied appliances and refrigeration. While attending school in Minnesota he farmed with his father-in-law, Lester Nelson. After completing courses he returned to Des Moines and worked as a heating and air conditioning service tech. He was employed by Lozier’s Heating and Cooling where he had worked for the last 25 years.

In the 1980s, Royce and Roberta purchased the farm just north of his parents’ farm, and in the mid-1990s, bought the farm to the south where they started to raise cattle. Royce still enjoyed spending weekends working at the farm with his cattle and dog Dolly. He very much loved all the dogs he had over the years Bud, Toby, Hunter, Dolly, and also other animals more than you could get him to admit.

He is survived by his wife, Roberta; daughter, Rebecca Woodring (Russell); sons, Jeremy Walburn (Danielle) and Jason Walburn (DeLaine Burken); seven grandchildren, Taylor (Zach) Carr, Andrew Woodring, Kamyra Woodring, Kaitlyn Woodring, Royce Albert Walburn, Alanis Walburn and Ryann Walburn; four great-grandchildren; brothers, Doug (Diannah) and Wayne Walburn; numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Royce R Walburn and Christine Ball Walburn.