Mary Ellen (JONES) COLLINS

JONES, COLLINS, BLAKNEY, LEIGHTON, KOCH, PHILLIPS, BORNSTEIN, WHITE, AAMODT, PAULSON

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 3/29/2011 at 04:20:43

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
October, 2007

Obituary - Mary Ellen (Jones) Collins

MASON CITY - Mary Ellen COLLINS, 95, of Mason City, died Saturday (Oct. 6, 2007) at Good Shepherd Health Center.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday (Oct. 10, 2007) at St. James Lutheran Church, 1148 Fourth St. S.E., with Pastor Paul NELSON officiating. Interment will be at Memorial Park Cemetery.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007, at the Major Erickson Funeral Home, 111 N. Pennsylvania Ave.

Memorials may be directed to the Mary Ellen COLLINS Memorial Fund.

Mary Ellen was born in Cerro Gordo County on Aug. 17, 1912, the daughter of Hugh Michale and Mary Nell (BLAKNEY) JONES. She was the ninth of 10 children. After graduation, she stayed home to help her mother on the family farm.

She married Maynard LeRoy COLLINS on Dec. 21, 1933. They farmed in the Chapin and Swaledale areas for a number of years. After they quit farming, she went to work at Mercy Hospital as a nurse's assistant. She worked there for eight years.

She later worked at the Park Hospital. She worked in the surgery department there until she retired at the age of 65.

After staying home for a year, she went to work at Good Shepherd until the age of 82, when she decided to retire for good.

She volunteered for both Mercy Hospital and Good Shepherd.

Mary Ellen was a loving mother. She loved people. She enjoyed sewing and made many beautiful quilts that she gave to relatives. She liked to knit and crochet and made many afghans. She and her husband loved to travel and go camping. She especially like to take her two grandsons camping and fishing.

She is survived by her two sons, Richard COLLINS and his wife, Cooky, of Mason City, and Raymond COLLINS and his wife, Linda, of Mason City; two granddaughters, Garrie Lynn LEIGHTON and Connie KOCH and her husband, Tim; one great-granddaughter, Stephanie KOCH; one great-grandson, Leighton PHILLIPS; and many nieces and nephews and friends. She is also survived by her adopted daughter, Eleanor BORNSTEIN and her husband, Leonard, of Floyd.

She was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; two grandsons, Shane and Brenden COLLINS; six brothers, Hugh Ivon JONES, Charles Thomas JONES, James Wesley JONES, Martin David JONES, William Richard JONES and Robert "Lee" JONES; and three sisters, Florence WHITE, Martha PAULSON and Sarah AAMODT.

Major Erickson Funeral Home & Crematory, 641-423-0924.

www.majorericksonfuneralhome.com

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2011