BOATMAN, Phyllis Mae c1926-2015

BOATMAN

Posted By: K.L. Kittleson
Date: 12/4/2015 at 13:15:07

Phyllis Mae Boatman
Died: Dec. 3, 2015

Services:
Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 608 W 4th St., Waterloo, Iowa

Cemetery:
Orange Township Cemetery, Waterloo, Iowa

Biography--

Phyllis was born and raised on a farm in Cherokee County, Iowa. She lived her whole life in Iowa, moving to various cities/towns. She was the middle sister of five girls who all received their education while gathering wood/cobs for the cook stove, gardening & pickling fruit, gathering eggs and then graduating to milking cows (by hand) while the cows stood in the pasture. She lived on a number of farms before her parents, Frank & Louise moved their family into town during Phyllis’s sophomore year of high school.

Her grade school was Brooke Consolidated, south of Peterson, Iowa. She attended high school in Brooke, Webb and graduated from Peterson High School in 1944. Phyllis participated in Chorus, played the trombone in the Band and, by her reports, was a star on her 6-on-6 girls basketball team. Phyllis was baptized & confirmed in St. John’s Evangelical Church. (Where one Sunday every month the service was conducted in German.)

While in high school she worked at the Fred Ganger Grocery Store after school and on Saturday’s, during the summer and on school breaks. She worked as a Nanny for a couple in Cherokee, Iowa, for $5 a week + room & board. After high school she was bookkeeper at Art Johnson’s John Deere Dealership. In 1948 she moved to Spencer, Iowa, to work for Peterson Cattle Co. as a bookkeeper of sales.

She was united in married to Rex Robert Boatman on May 28, 1950 at the Congregational Church in Peterson. The couple moved to Storm Lake where Phyllis worked for Buena Vista Abstract. And, when the family moved to Waterloo, she worked as a secretary at the Rath Packing Co. For several years she was busy with kids but when they moved to an acreage in Waterloo (1967), she again started working outside the home (Donna was in 1st grade) and worked for the Waterloo School Food Service for the next 21 years before retiring (July 1993).

Phyllis was a Cub Scout Den Mother in Pomeroy, also helping to cook at the Twin Lakes Bible Camp. She sang in the United Church of Christ Church choir and a in a Lady’s Quartet. She was also the church’s Sunday School Superintendent. She was a member of various women’s groups in Pomeroy and Waterloo; she was always a supporter of 4-H and was a 4-H Leader. She helped get 4-H cattle ready by ‘teasing’ their tails and taking pictures for the 4-H record book.

Phyllis was organized, shy, direct and consistent. Her kids were lucky as the laundry was always done and the meals, frozen corn or canned fruits/vegetables, homemade cookies or cinnamon rolls were always on hand and ready to eat. She was repeatedly asked to bring her deviled eggs, potato salad, or angel food cake to events. Phyllis also had great luck. If any of the family attended a dinner with door prizes there was a great shot that mom would be the one to win a crock pot, pot holder or candle!

Phyllis enjoyed watching football and basketball on TV or attending a game while her children were in school. She loved spending time with her family, visiting her mom/sisters and watching her children in the show ring. She loved being a part of her children (and grandchildren’s) weddings. Holding grandbabies and great-grandbabies gave her a lot of joy. She loved to play the card game “500” with her family/sisters. She would set her jaw ‘just so’ and you knew she wanted to win that hand. In her later years, Phyllis bowled in league and kept track of Rex.

Phyllis was very proud that all three of her children graduated from college at Iowa State University. Donna received her Masters from St Thomas University.

Phyllis is survived by her husband; son, Roger (Barbara) of Pella, Iowa; daughter, Donna of River Falls, Wisconsin; four grandchildren: Ryan (Megan), Jason (Sara), Jacob & Erin; and four great-grandchildren: Emma, Hattie, Camden and Andrew.

In death Phyllis rejoins her son, Russell whom we lost in 1993, her parents and her four sisters: Vera, Dorothy, Harriet and Marcella.

Source: Locke Funeral Home website, 12/4/2015

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NOTES:
www.people-finders.ws shows a Phyllis Mae Boatman, age 89, of Waterloo, Iowa. That would make her born about 1926.