Lawton Free Reader

01/04/2026

NANCY J LUEDER

Nancy J Lueder (Caffrey), 83, of Lawton Michigan, passed away peacefully on January 2, 2026, after recent complications with COPD. She is survived by her husband Alfred Lueder and children Matthew 59, Eric (April) 56, Todd 54 and Christopher (Jeannie) 52. She was also a grandmother/great grandmother to nine. She was preceded in death by her sister, Sharon Blackwell (Caffrey).

Born June 9, 1942, to John J and Gabrielle D Caffrey, she grew up in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Illinois. After college she worked for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company where she would meet her loving husband, Alfred. The two married on February 20, 1965, and eventually settled in Park Forest, Il where she spent the first half of her life raising her four boys into men of integrity and heart. Not only raising four boys, she opened her home and heart to countless neighborhood kids, who still refer to her affectionately as “Mom.” It was a testament to her extraordinary love, strength, patience, and a deep heart that would follow her into the second half of her life.

Following Alfreds retirement, Nancy and Alfred fulfilled their dream of retiring on a quiet lake, settling on Huzzy Lake in Lawton, Michigan. They embraced the Village of Lawton and the local area embraced her right back. Nancy donated countless hours with local garden clubs, quilting clubs, St Mary’s Church, the library and Bronson Lakeview Auxiliary. She was named the Paw Paw Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year in 2011 and the Grand Marshall of the Lawton Summerfest parade in 2022.

Her most fulfilling achievement was the 25 years she spent with the Lawton Free Reader, a monthly local publication created and co-edited by her and Alfred. Each month they would comment on local events, sports and other stories, assembling the columns, creating the layout, arranging for printing, collating and even the hand delivering of this free publication. She worked tirelessly until publishing the last issue in December 2025.

Thank you for being a guiding light. Rest in peace knowing your kindness and love will continue to live on in the lives of those whom you touched.

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12/30/2025

Congratulations..........beautiful job!

12/15/2025

Thank you from the troops for Blue Star Mothers operation cheer!

Blue Star Mothers of
Southwest Michigan
Chapter #179

December 14, 2025
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc., (BSMA) hosted their 19th annual Support the Troops “Operation Holiday Cheer” (OHC) packing event last month on November 8, 2026. So, whether you donated items, time, help with the packing or donated funds to help us get it shipped, THANK YOU!

This year our Chapter faced a good many new obstacles, making what we do each year to support our deployed Service Members, much more difficult. The tariffs for shipping overseas were not suppose to affect shipping care pages and mail to our overseas Service Members. The tariffs did not affect our efforts directly, but they influenced the United States Postal Services to make and implement changes in the process that we have been doing for 19 years. Each box shipped had to have every - single - item in the box listed by name (including brand), weight, and monetary value. When we normally ship over 100 boxes and each custom form required so much time and effort, we had to make adjustments to our procedures. For the first time we accepted stateside address along with our deployed address for OHC. Those boxes did not have as many hoops to go through.

With a lot of hard work and lessons learned, we did manage to send 140 boxes, 52 boxes to our deployed and 88 boxes to stateside service members at a grand total of $4.033.58 for shipping.

We are starting to receive thank you messages back from those who have received our boxes and as so many from the community helped get the boxes sent. We thought you’d enjoy hearing what they are saying:

One young sailor received his box just in time to pack his duffle bag full of items from his box prior to shipping out. He is planning on sharing them. He was very excited about all the food and especially the tuna salad and crackers! The thrill of the sauce packets was HUGE!

One young woman is so excited to receive her boxes. She is repacking them to share with new airmen that are arriving from tech school. She said they usually don’t come with much. She was making copies of our Blue Star Letter to share with each one, so they would know where the items came from.

Another, “I just received one of your boxes. Thank you, guys, so much. I will be sharing with my unit. I have gotten a number of these over the years and it does help knowing that there are people out there who care. The things in the packages that are sent are some things you might (not) think (much) about, but they remind me of home.”

Thank you for helping us spread Holiday Cheer among our Service Members at home and abroad! We couldn’t do it without you!!

For more information on Blue Star Mothers, go to www.bluestarmothers.org or visit the “Blue Star Mothers of Southwest Michigan Chapter #179” page.

12/04/2025

FOR ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN KEEPING THE FREE READER "ALIVE", PLEASE EMAIL: Yes please post that anyone interested in continuing the paper should contact [email protected]. She is already meeting with 2 people but can arrange a general meeting live and on zoom or Google meets.
We had about 10 at the first meeting in 2000 and we know how it goes over the years with contributors so the more people we have the better.

You can put in the post that there will be a first meeting on Tuesday, Dec 9 at 5pm. I'll give the location in an email response. No worries if people can't make it. There will be more. I'll see about getting the community room for a bigger meeting.

Thanks to Donna for organizing and I'm sorry that I'm no longer able to contribute.

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12/03/2025

FINAL HEADLINE: The Lawton Free Reader to shut its doors. Nancy and Al Lueder are finally calling it quits after 25 years of doing The Lawton Free Reader. We’ve threatened before, but now, due to various issues – including medical - we find ourselves unable to carry on the publication and distribution of our beloved paper.
The December 2025 issue will be its last.
Those who have paid in advance for their ads will be reimbursed - just give us a little time; Those who were sent bills for ads in December should not pay them. If already mailed, their checks will be returned.
If anyone wishes to continue to do the paper in the future, feel free to contact us for costs and procedures.
We would like to thank everyone for their support in contributing poems, ads, articles and pictures of local events. We have some great photographers in Lawton – we appreciate you more than we can say.
It has been our great pleasure working with you and giving back to the community we love.

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11/23/2025

Frantic request!! Does anyone have any photos from the Community Thanksgiving Dinner? Somehow our camera/computer glitched and we have no pictures. Our apologies. (has to be today; paper goes to print tomorrow!)

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11/21/2025

11/17/2025

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11/11/2025

The American Legion Waters-Hackenberg Post 220 will be having a Veterans Day Celebration at the Lawton Depot. The Ceremony will begin at 11am on Tuesday, Veterans Day. We would like to invite the community to come and celebrate our Veterans and show them our support. We will also have refreshments available.

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11/01/2025

The 2025 season of News Channel 3's Football Fever comes to a close Friday.

11/01/2025

Woo Hoo Blue Devils...final score 49-28

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