Elsie Dee 1870-1961

DEE, RIGBY, MAXWELL

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 10/19/2019 at 08:32:38

March 30 1961 - The Tipton Conservative

Funeral services for Mrs. Elsie Rigby Dee, 90, were held March 29 at the Dye funeral home with the Rev. A. C. Long in charge. Pallbearers were Harry Methven and Steve Maxwell. Mrs. Eugene Hancock was organist. Burial was in Elmwood cemetery in Waterloo where graveside services were held.

Mrs. Dee died March 26 in Tipton after a long illness.

The daughter of Martin F. and Mattie Miles Rigby, she was born Aug. 22, 1870 at Stanwood. Her father served for 3 years in the Civil War, as a member of Co. R, 24th Iowa Regiment.

In 1871 the family moved to a farm they purchased north of Stanwood. In 1885 she entered the academy at Cornell college and entered Cornell college in 1888, graduating in 1892. She took graduate work in the Speech-Arts department at Cornell in 1893 and 1894.

She attended the college of law at the University of Iowa in 1897-98 where she met her future husband, Ezra A. Maxwell. They were married Nov. 24, 1898.

They made their home in Waterloo where he practiced law until his death Feb. 17, 1905.

After his death she moved with her 2 sons to Mt. Vernon, where she lived with her parents until Aug. 17, 1916 when she married Harry W. Dee. They lived in the Mt. Vernon-Mechanicsville area, except for a year at Huron, S.D., until Mr. Dee's death in 1945. Since then she has lived in Mt. Vernon, Tipton and at the Cookson Memorial home in West Branch.

She was a member of the Eastern Star, American Association of University Women, Daughters of the American Revolution, and was secretary of the Upper Iowa Conference of the Women's Foreign Mission from 1914-1918.

She is survived by 2 sons, Judge B. J. Maxwell, Tipton; Dr. Louis R. Maxwell, Chevy Chase, Md.; 5 grandchildren and 4 greatgrandchildren and 5 stepsons, Glenn Dee, Cedar Rapids; Harold Dee, San Diego, Calif.; H. Paul Dee, Marshalltown; Ralph Dee, Iowa City and James Dee, Parkersburg.