Deborah D. Leonard

Deborah "Deb" D. Leonard, 47, passed away on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Irene, SD.

A Memorial Service will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, 2025, at Schriver's Memorial Chapel, with Pastor Jim Hofman of Community Church, St. Lawrence, SD, officiating.

A time for fellowship and refreshments will follow the service.

Visitation will be one hour before the service.

Schriver’s Memorial Mortuary and Crematory, 414 5th Avenue NW, Aberdeen, is in charge of arrangements. Family and friends may sign the online guestbook at www.schriversmemorial.com. Services will be recorded and posted on Schriver’s website following the service.

Deborah Dawn (Rowland) Leonard was born January 23, 1978, to proud parents Arlen and Dawn (Fawcett) Rowland at the hospital in Knoxville, Iowa, near where the couple lived on the family farm. Always a busy body, Deb spent her time helping on the family dairy farm and always looking to master new skills like cooking, baking, gardening, canning, and sewing. Deb was also a very talented pianist and trumpet player. Deb was always eager to showcase her talents by playing at home, church, and vacation bible school, as well as recitals.

Always active in 4-H and FFA, Deb earned a large collection of ribbons and trophies from showing dairy cattle, entering baked goods, participating in various sewing and fashion projects, and helping her sister show her goats.

Deb graduated from Ottumwa High School in Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1996, and then earned her A.A.S. degree in Computer Science and Networking from Indian Hills Community College, also located in Ottumwa, Iowa.

Deb skipped her graduation ceremony to marry James Leonard, and they immediately moved to Cedar Rapids to start their new chapter. There, Deb had a very successful career with Edward Jones, utilizing her degree. On October 16, 2001, the couple welcomed Austin James Leonard. It was during that pregnancy that Deb’s battle with type 1 diabetes began to emerge. Although their marriage ended, James remembers Deb’s charismatic “a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet” personality and has many wonderful memories of Deb hosting friends and family, being an exceptional cook, and being one of the most resourceful people he had ever known.

Deb and Austin later moved to South Dakota in search of a fresh start. She was a dreamer and a survivor, trying various career paths from waitressing to selling furniture, machinery, and mail routes to support herself and Austin.

Deb eventually met Will Goeshel and moved to Leola, where they welcomed Jonathon Willard Goeshel, who was born on January 17, 2013, at just 20 weeks, weighing only 1 lb 1 oz, due to Deb's brittle diabetes.

The next couple of years, Deb spent her time bouncing back and forth between Leola and Sioux Falls, where Jonathon was being cared for in the NICU and Lifescape Children's Hospital. Through this difficult time, Deb continued to pursue her dream of running a café at the 10-45 in Leola. Deb’s ambitions came to a screeching halt in the late fall of 2014 when her roommate found her unresponsive due to a diabetic coma. She was then taken to Sioux Falls, where she wouldn’t wake up for 9 days. On day 9, Debs’ strong will and determination would once again prove to be a force not to be reckoned with. She would spend the next few years relearning how to walk, talk, read, and write, due to suffering a severe Traumatic Brain injury.

Although she never fully recovered, she was able to continue to keep life interesting with her stories and knack for finding mischief. Deb's care requirements became too much for her family to be able to keep her stable, and her last several years have been spent under the care of the staff of Avantara Ipswich, Groton, Sunset Manor in Irene, 2 North in Aberdeen, and the Human Resources Center in Yankton.

Deb is survived by her two sons: Austin James Leonard, currently stationed at Norfolk, WV, naval base, and Jonathon Goeshel, who resides in Lifescape in Sioux Falls; her mother, Dawn Rowland of Miller; sister Heidi Wollman of Ipswich; nephew Lucas Rowland of Ipswich; and many aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

Deb was preceded in death by a stillborn son, Timothy Patterson; father, Arlen Rowland; paternal grandparents: James and Lanell Rowland; maternal grandparents: Wayne and Helen Fawcett; uncle Ardean Rowland; Aunt and uncle Ardith and Harold Showers; and cousin Ryan Showers.