HASTINGS, Kartha S. (Narum) Smeby --- 1907-2001

BRYSON, NARUM, SMEBY, HASTINGS, PRIDEAUX, HUFFMAN, EWING

Posted By: IA GenWeb Volunteer
Date: 9/1/2011 at 19:27:44

Kartha Hastings

Kartha S. Hastings, 93, of Willow Springs, MO, and formerly of Waukon, died Sunday., March 11, 2001, at Willow Care Nursing Home in Willow Springs, following a brief illness.

Funeral services were held Thurs., March 15, at Martin Funeral Home in Waukon with Rev. Steve Campbell officiating. Burial was in Old West Paint Creek Cemetery, rural Waukon, with Rev. Ken Kimball officiating.

Kartha S. Narum was born June 12, 1907, at the rural Waterville home of her parents, Edwin and Rhoda (Bryson) Narum. They moved to a farm near Kalispell, MT, in 1910. Following the death of her mother, the family moved to the Bryson farm and Kartha's maternal grandmother moved to Waterville. Kartha attended the Bryson School and Waterville High School, where she played basketball. She, and then the rest of the family, moved to Madison, WI. Kartha worked as a telephone operator until the Great Depression.

On May 29, 1930, she married Theodore R. Smeby, formerly of Waukon, at her father's home in Madison. After a son, Robert C. Smeby, was born, they moved to Theodore's parents' farm near Rossville. When Theodore died, she moved to Waukon and worked as a Nurse's Aide for many years at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon.

On Sept 21, 1963, she married Chester E. Hastings at the Little Brown Church in Nashua. After Chester died, she remained in Waukon until she broke her hip and was confined to the Good Samaritan Center. She moved to an assisted home care in Texas to be near her son, Robert. When he retired in 1998, she moved to Willow Care.

Kartha was a member of Old West Paint Creek Lutheran Church, Waterville, and St. Paul's Methodist Church in Waukon, where she was active in young people's groups and in ladies circles. She enjoyed her family, friends and neighbors, and traveling to see them all.

Kartha is preceded in death by her parents; her husbands; two brothers, Robert and Edwin; a sister, Thyra Prideaux; a son, Ronald Hastings; and a son-in-law, Cyril Huffman.

Survivors include two sons, Robert (Lila) Smeby of Pomona, MO, and Keith (Jean) Hastings of Waukon; two daughters, Lila (Neal) Ewing of Corvalis, OR, and Sylvia Huffman of Waterloo; a daughter-in-law, Barbara Hastings of Waynesville, MO, and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Her grandsons served as casket bearers.

Martin Funeral home of Waukon assisted the family.

Postville, Iowa newspaper of the time clipping, from Dorothy Schave's obituary collection.