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Opal Irene Crouthamel

CROUTHAMEL, BROWN

Posted By: Pat Frette (email)
Date: 1/8/2009 at 17:19:55

Opal Irene (Brown) Crouthamel, age 97, of rural Kelley, Iowa, went home to her Lord and Savior Friday, December 26, 2008 at Mercy Hospice in Johnston.
Opal was born February 10, 1911 in Boone County, Iowa. She was the oldest of 9 children born to Robert Earl and Bertha (Blaske) Brown. Her father was born in America and her mother migrated from Poland.
Opal started working in the Boone area at age 14 caring for children and cleaning houses. At age 18, she married Walter Crouthamel on March 27, 1929. After Opal and Walter married they lived their first year together on Walter's parent's farm, northeast of Boone. In the fall of 1929, Walter and Opal bought an 80 acre farm where Opal has lived until her death. The farm is located on X Avenue near Kelley, Iowa.
To this marriage was born a daughter Lois Crouthamel, who helped with the farm and helped care for Opal after Walter was killed in an auto accident in December 1969.
Opal attended Boone Biblical College. The principles and values that she learn there she followed all her life. She was a caring, compassionate and giving woman. She had a deep faith in her Lord Jesus. She was a member of the Garden Prairie United Church of Christ near Madrid. She was the chaplain for her Ladies Aid and Northern Lights Circle for many years. She enjoyed searching the scriptures and books to write the best lesson she could. She would also add a personal poem or a song to the lesson. She has been an example to many in her life and a prayer warrior for many.
Her faith and determination was tested in 1941 when a mule, which had sleeping sickness bit her leg and would not release her leg. The bit was so serious that Opal would spend months in the hospital. In a time before widespread antibiotics and modern medication, it was thought that she would have to have the leg amputated or that she would not walk again. She gave great credit to Dr. Fellows and to Christ for answering her prayers. After months of having tubes and water running though her leg she walked out of the hospital.
As a child Opal wrote her first poem for her teacher and got an A+. She did not know that it would be a lifelong way that she would express her feelings and she would share with others. During her hospitalization with her leg, she started writing poems about her feelings and people who touched her life. Over the years she wrote poems for neighbors' anniversaries, deaths of young soldiers, and births of children. She wrote about loved ones and the farm that she loved. Sixty of her poems have been put in a book for display for the Kelley Museum to celebrate her lifetime of authorship. She leaves a legacy of history of the area.
Opal also loved her vegetable garden, flower garden, canning, baking and cooking. She loved to visit with friends and family. No one ever left home hungry.
For about 10 years, Opal and her sister Geneva wintered in Florida. During that time, Opal had a great time playing in kitchen band, singing and reading poems. In the last few years she has enjoyed reading poems for senior citizens Jams.
Opal was preceded in death by her parents; her two sisters, Geneva Appel and Isabel Shadle; three brothers, Clifford, Theodore (Ted) and Harold Brown; and her loving husband, Walter Crouthamel.
Those left to honor her memory, are her daughter, Lois Crouthamel of Kelley, Iowa; her granddaughter, Joyce Ann Brown of Des Moines, Iowa; her great granddaughters, Melissa Sue Brown of Des Moines, Iowa and Daphen (Brown) Clark and her husband Lee of Temecula, CA; two great-great grandchildren, Claire Maria Clark and Jack Robert Clark of Temecula, CA; her three brothers, Norman Dean Brown (Kay) of Greensboro, North Carolina; Earline Brown (Maxine) of Perry, Iowa and Everett Brown (Joyce) of Peyton City, Florida; her sisters-in-law, Phyllis Brown of Alma, Michigan and Dorothy Cvikel of Lucerne Valley, CA. She will be remembered by many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.
Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, December 31, at the Walter ~ Schroeder Funeral Home at Fifth & Story Streets in Boone. Pastor Doug Raymond and Pastor Walter Rehberg will be officiating. Burial will be in the Linwood Park Cemetery in Boone, Iowa.
Visitation with the family present will be held on Tuesday, December 30, at the Walter ~ Schroeder Funeral Home at Fifth & Story Streets in Boone from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Visitation will continue on Wednesday at the funeral home from 8:00 a.m. to the service time at 10:00 a.m.
Memorials will be given to Mercy Hospice of Johnston or the Garden Prairie United Church of Christ near Madrid.
Arrangements by, Walter ~ Schroeder Funeral Home at Fifth & Story Streets in Boone.
Source: Boone News Republican


 

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