Marna Ruth Hancock

BEAMAN, EDWARDS, HANCOCK, SHUMAKER, YEAZELL

Posted By: Cindy (email)
Date: 6/27/2024 at 15:12:22

Marna Ruth Hancock, Methodist minister’s wife known for her talent as a collector and decorative artist, died at the Cedar Valley Hospice House in Waterloo, Iowa, on June 22, 2024. She was 99 years old.

Alongside Rev. E.H. Hancock, her husband of 67 years, Marna served five United Methodist churches in Iowa over nearly 40 years. Beginning with Mapleton in 1951, the couple went on to serve churches in Independence, Iowa City, Des Moines and St. Paul’s in Cedar Rapids.

Besides raising three children, Marna -- or Mrs. Eugene H. Hancock, as she preferred to be called -- dedicated her life to her work as a minister’s wife, volunteering in church activities, teaching Sunday School, hosting United Methodist Women’s groups, and counseling visitors who knocked on the parsonage door. She was active in P.E.O. throughout her life.

The couple retired to a historic home in Independence in 1987, where Rev. Hancock had served as senior pastor at First United Methodist from 1957 to 1962. He passed away in 2011.

As dedicated as she was to the life of the church, Marna’s true passion was creating her own exceptional craftwork, as well as studying and collecting American and European antiques.

Her beautifully decorated parsonages throughout their ministry were filled with her hand-made quilts, hardanger lace, ceramic painting, needlework and a museum-quality Victorian doll house. Some of her artistry was exhibited at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines and the historic Brucemore Mansion in Cedar Rapids.

Marna Beaman was born on September 12, 1924, in Villa Grove, a small railroad town in central Illinois, where she attended elementary through high school. Her mother, Marguerite, at first, ran a small grocery store in town, while her father, Ira, worked a variety of jobs including town sheriff, or as she called him, “the street and alley cop.” The Great Depression would forever mark Marna’s early years. Her parents moved from Detroit to Toledo, and eventually back to Villa Grove in search of work. Marna remembered moving to four different schools in one year. The greatest tragedy in those years was the death of her older sister Gloria at age 6, of viral meningitis in their Detroit apartment.

Back in Villa Grove, Marna’s mother began operating the linotype machine at the Villa Grove News, a local paper owned by her father, Andrew Shumaker. It was a skill her mother would eventually take to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where she worked as the first woman in the press shop during World War II.

Marna met her future husband, Eugene Hancock, in Villa Grove when she was 16 and he was 18. He would time his job sweeping the sidewalk in front of the Index Variety store when he knew she would be walking by on her way to high school. Their first date was at an Epworth League Methodist youth meeting.

World War II intervened, forever changing their lives. Gene enlisted in the Army. Marna’s father found a job in St. Louis, Missouri, where she moved in 1942 with her parents and younger brother, Andrew. She graduated from Normandy High School in 1943. Then at age 19, Marna boarded a train bound for Utica, New York, to marry her fiancé, who was then a soldier on medical leave in the Army’s Specialized Training Program at St. Bonaventure’s College. Gene and Marna’s wedding was a simple affair in a pastor’s living room on January 19, 1944. She spent the rest of the war years working in a munitions factory in St. Louis and later at Sprinkle’s Drug Store in Villa Grove, as she awaited his return.

For the next four years, Marna worked at various telephone switchboard jobs to pay the rent, while Gene studied for the ministry with the help of the GI Bill at Illinois Wesleyan University and later at what is now called Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. Her first child, Lora Lea, was born in Sidell, Illinois, Gene’s first student charge appointment at the local Methodist Church. Her second child, Lyn Nell, was born in Mapleton, and her third, Jeffrey David, in Independence.

She is predeceased by her parents, Marguerite Yeazell and Ira Russell Beaman, her younger brother Andrew Beaman, and her older sister Gloria. She’s also predeceased by her son-in-law, Charles Edwards.

A devoted wife and mother, Marna leaves three children, Lora Lea Edwards of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Lyn Nell Hancock and her husband Filip Bondy of Roseland, New Jersey; Jeffrey Hancock of Independence, Iowa; four grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and one great-great grandchild.

A private memorial service will be held at a later date at St. Paul’s United Methodist Chapel, 1340 3rd Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52403.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be directed to:

First United Methodist Church Foundation
313 2nd St. SE, Independence, Iowa, 50644
c/o Marna Hancock

Condolences may be placed at www.White-MtHope.com
White Funeral Home, Independence is in charge of arrangements.