BOCK, Lenabelle (McGINNIS)

MCGINNIS, BOCK, CONRATH, BUSHNELL, LEMIRE, ZIMMERMAN, TAYLOR, GILMORE, LEMIRE, STRONG

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 9/7/2016 at 05:21:22

Obituary ~ Lenabelle (McGinnis) Bock
June 30, 1904 ~ October 06, 2007

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
October 11, 2007

MOUNT MORRIS, Ill. — Lenabelle (McGinnis) Bock died Saturday (Oct. 6, 2007) at Pinecrest Manor in Mount Morris, Ill. Born on June 30, 1904, in Linden, Iowa, she was the daughter of Gertrude (Holloway) and Robert McGinnis. She was raised in Linden, Redfield, South Dakota, and Stanley, Iowa.

Her teaching degree was earned at Iowa State University and Northern Iowa University followed by teaching assignments in Swaledale and Klemme, where she met her husband, Edwin Frederick Bock. They were married in 1930.

They established their home in Garner, where Ed Bock was an oil jobber. Since school boards did not hire married women, Lenabelle cooked a noon meal in their home for teachers in the Garner Public School District.

The couple raised two daughters, Mary Margaret and Virginia Mae. When World War II broke out, school districts were only too glad to have married women as teachers. She returned to the Klemme schools and then to the Hayfield school system where she taught home economics until 1947. Always a volunteer in the Garner community, Lenabelle was an ardent member of the Republican Party. She was asked to run for a seat in the Iowa Legislature in 1960. She accepted, ran and won and represented Hancock County for two terms. Lenabelle was one of five women in the Iowa House of Representatives. She worked hard both in the legislature and in her district. She is remembered for her statement: “Women in the legislature need to look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, and work like a dog.” Her political papers reside in the Iowa Women’s Archive at the University of Iowa.

In 1970 Lenabelle and her husband built a home in Clear Lake, where they lived for 25 years. When Ed Bock retired, they spent their winters in Arizona. At his death in 1995 she moved to Pinecrest Village in Illinois.

Preceding her in death were her husband, Edwin F. Bock; her parents; two brothers, Gerald and Howard McGinnis; and a sister, Frieda McGinnis Conrath.

She is survived by her daughters, Mary B. Bushnell (Meg) and her husband, Fred, and Virginia Lemire and her husband Robert Lemire. She also leaves six grandchildren: Frederic Bushnell III and his wife, Drusie (Taylor), John Bushnell and his wife, Christine (Zimmerman), Cade Bushnell and his wife, Mari Lyn (Gilmore), Edwin (Ned) Bushnell and his wife, Lyrah (Austin), Elise Lemire and her husband, James Taylor, and Robert (Bo) Lemire and his wife, Melissa (Strong); and eight great- grandchildren: Thomas, Benjamin and Matthew Bushnell, Grace and Ross Bushnell, Eli Taylor-Lemire;, Zachary and Sophia Lemire.

Lena Belle Bock’s ashes will be interred at Clear Lake, Iowa, at a later date.

Submission by Sarah Thorson Little, July 20, 2010

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The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
October 10, 2007

Pioneer lawmaker dies at 103
By John Skipper

MASON CITY — When Lenabelle Bock of Garner was elected to the Iowa Legislature in 1960, she joined just two other women in the statehouse.

Bock, who died Saturday at the age of 103, was not intimidated by the good-old-boy world around her.

“She was a person of principle, very organized and very committed — and not afraid to express her opinion,” said her daughter, Meg Bushnell of Stillwater, Ill., near where her mother spent her final years at Pinecrest Manor in Mount Morris, Ill.

“Her character kept her moving and kept her alive all these years,” said Bushnell.

“She loved reading and read across the spectrum, from novels to politics,” she said.

Bock, a Republican, served two terms in the Legislature, from 1961 to 1965.

“In 1960, Lyndon Johnson swept Iowa but my mother still won,” said Bushnell.

After her first legislative session, she spoke about her experience in a Globe Gazette interview in May 1961.

“I am sort of amazed at how a few people can control the legislature,” she said.

She was particularly concerned with committee meetings being held in private.

“I think I would be in favor of taking away secrecy in committee,” she said.

“I don’t think there would be as much wasting of time if the press was present. It would be a good way of saving time and get a good deal of thinking done.”

She was also dismayed by the power structure in the House.

“If a few members are against a bill, they can keep it in committee. That’s pretty powerful,” said Bock. “In a lot of legislation, there is real selfishness.”

Prior to her first legislative session, she met with civic leaders and others at a public meeting in Mason City.

When the meeting was over, one person in attendance made an observation that could be considered part of Lenabelle Bock’s legacy.

He said, “There’s one representative I’ll bet the men won’t push around.”

NOTE: Lenabelle has a gravestone at Memorial Park Cemetery.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2016