Mrs. HARRY (Eloise I. Brownson) MEYER 1928-2006

MUELLER, BROWNSON, BURDICK, MEYER, MOORE, HOLBERT, WOOD, PROVOST, HOTH, LAMBERT, PACE

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 3/15/2006 at 19:24:37

Eloise Meyer

Eloise Meyer, 77, of Norfolk, Va., formerly of Waukon, Iowa, died Tuesday, February 14, 2006, at Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, Va. Funeral services were held Tuesday, February 21, at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Waukon, with Rev. Lynn G. Groe officiating. Burial was in National Cemetery, National, Iowa. Martin Funeral Home in Waukon was in charge of arrangements.

Eloise Ina was born on the family farm April 15, 1928, at National, Iowa, the daughter of Lloyd Daniel and Mathilde Anna (Mueller) Brownson. She was baptized at the National Lutheran Church and confirmed at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Garnavillo, Iowa. Eloise graduated from Monona High School in 1946, attended Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, for one year and another year at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa. She studied at the Methodist/Kahler School of Nursing in Rochester, Minn., graduating in 1952. She remained at Methodist Hospital in Rochester where she served as an instructor and head nurse for a year. In July 1953, Eloise took a position as a staff nurse at Indian and Eskimo hospitals at Mt. Edgecombe, Alaska.

December 30, 1953, she married James B. Burdick at Juneau, Alaska, and continued as a staff and private duty nurse at St. Ann’s Hospital and also a public health nurse at the Juneau Health Center.

After battling spinal polio and obtaining a divorce in 1959, Eloise returned to Iowa where she worked as a staff nurse at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon.

August 29, 1964, she married Harry W. Meyer in Waukon. She was promoted to Director of Nurses in 1967 at the hospital, then became a nurse surveyor for the Iowa Department of Health in 1974, eventually retiring in 1988. Since December 2005, Eloise lived in Norfolk, Va., where she resided at Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital.

She was an active member of St. John’s Lutheran Church, where she was a steward and involved in the Ruth Circle and choir. She was a member of the American Nurses Association, Browning Club, and served as the secretary of the Allamakee County Historical Society where she started the Genealogy Department of the Allamakee County Museum. Her hobbies included gardening, stitchery, bridge, reading, collecting glassware and china, boating, traveling, volunteer work, and music. She was actively engaged in genealogy research for her family including composing a twice-yearly family newsletter.

Survivors include three children, Dianna (Greg) Moore of Aurora, Colo.; Tom Burdick of Lacey, Wash.; and Jenny Holbert of Norfolk, Va.; three step-children, Julie Wood of Lansing, Iowa; Richard Meyer of Madison, Wis.; and Ruth (Dennis) Provost of Salem, Conn.; 15 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and her sister, Rachel (Harold) Hoth.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Harry Meyer, who died in 1988; her brother, Daniel Brownson; two sisters, Berna Lambert and Jeanette Pace; and a granddaughter, Jane Marie.

Casketbearers were Doug Hoth, Steve Hoth, Joe Pace, Larry Barker, Tom Brownson, Jim Wood, Jim Meyer, Bob Meyer, Duane Caylor, Tom Lambert, Joe Lambert, Jr., and David Lambert.

Waukon Standard, February 22, 2006