Notes for: Helen Esther Rexroat

From http://iagenweb.org/boards/marion/obituaries/index.cgi?review=84134:

Waits, Helen E. (Rexroat) 1910-2002

Posted By: volunteer (email)
Date: 8/7/2005 at 20:11:54

PELLA - Helen E. Waits, 92, of Pella, died Friday, Oct. 18, in the emergency room of Pella Regional Health Center. Her funeral service was 1:30 p.m. today, Oct. 21, in the chapel of Van Dyk-Duven Funeral Home in Pella Memorials: Dialysis Department of Pella Regional Health Center.

Helen Esther Rexroat was born July 22, 1910, in Jasper County near Monroe to David (Fran) and Minnie Sarah Strahan Rexroat. She graduated from eighth grade at a country school, then attended Pella Public High School in Pella.

On Sept. 22, 1933, she married Leo Waits at the Coalport parsonage in Marion County. They had nine children. They lived all their married life in the Knoxville and Pella areas. Leo farmed in Marion County until they moved into Pella in 1955. Helen was a homemaker, and began working at Rolscreen in 1966. They retired in 1974.

Helen was an avid gardener and loved her roses. Leo died April 10, 1990. Helen remained active with cooking, baking, sewing, crocheting and making crafts, and traveling with her family.

She is survived by four daughters and sons-in-law: Roberta and Bill Landgrebe of Newton, Shirley and L.D. Modlin of Newton, Phyllis and Lawrence Bittner of Battlefield, Mo., and Sharon and Gene Newman of Pella; four sons and three daughters-in-law: Phillip Waits of Knoxville, Ronald and Joan Waits of Pella, Richard and Cindy Waits of Pella and Dennis and Cheryl Waits of Pella; a sister, Marguerite Den Hoedt of Knoxville; 21 grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; 40 great-grandchildren; 11 step-great-grandchildren; six great-great-grandchildren; and four step-great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband; a son, Jackie Wayne, who died at age 2 in 1942; a granddaughter, Cindy Johnson; her parents; three brothers: Walter, David and Donald Rexroat; and two sisters: Freda Nolin and Fern Rexroat.

The Oskaloosa Herald, October 21, 2002