KOTTMAN, Marcele Marjorie 1922 - 2014

KOTTMAN, PALS, BARKEMA, SCHLAWIN, DHONDT, HILLMANN, SYVERSON, HAKE, KRUSE

Posted By: Pat Ludeke (email)
Date: 1/2/2018 at 18:15:18

Marcele Marjorie (Pals) Kottman, 92, formerly of Thornton, Iowa, died Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014, at the Rehabilitation Center of Hampton, IA

A funeral service will be held 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Thornton, with the Rev. Rhea Evanson officiating. Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, 101 N. Fourth St., Clear Lake, and one hour prior to the service at the church. Interment will be at Pleasant View Cemetery, Thornton. Memorials may be given to the Marcele Kottman Memorial Fund.

Marcele Marjorie was born Aug. 30, 1922, the daughter of C.K. and Katie Barkema Pals. She was the fifth child of seven children. She was born on a farm northwest of Meservey, Iowa. She attended school at Meservey Consolidated School. She graduated from the eighth grade in May 1936. She didn’t attend high school but in 1966 Marcele took the GED tests at Clear Lake, Iowa, sponsored by the then Mason City Junior College before it was NIACC. She passed them and received an equivalency diploma.

She married James C. Kottman on Feb. 26, 1942, at her parent’s home in Meservey. To this union two children were born: Kathryn Louise Kottman born March 16, 1947, and Jane Ellen Kottman born June 05, 1952.

Marcele grew up in the Meservey area. She was baptized in the First Reformed Church in Meservey and attended Sunday School and catechism at the church, except for the two years that her family moved to a farm at Malcom, Iowa, to be near a sister and family Tena M. Hillmann. They then moved to a farm near Thornton with her parents in 1940.

While Kathy and Jane were growing up and attending school in Thornton, Marcele was involved in PTA and Sunday School. She was a Sunday School teacher 18 years at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Thornton, Iowa, to teach the children about the love of Jesus Christ for all children who came to Sunday School. She also enjoyed singing in the choir of St. Paul until it was disbanded in the year 2009. Marcele was 87-years-old at the time, but she loved to sing the hymns of the church to anyone who would listen.

She worked at Mabb’s Grocery store in Thornton from 1975-1988 as cashier and always enjoyed talking with the customers.

Cherished memories as a mother, grandmother, great grandmother and great-great grandmother will be deeply missed by her daughter Kathryn (Kathy) Schlawin and her husband Jerry, Jane Dhondt and her husband Leland; grandchildren Carol Ann (Greg) Johnson, Gary (Eileen) Schlawin, great-grandchildren Jarret Nicholas Johnson, Kenneth James Johnson, Dustin Lee Pensel, Hunter Eugene Schlawin, Carter Lee Schlawin, and great-great-grandchild Amberlynn (Marie) Pensel. Many nieces and nephews will cherish her memory.

Marcele was preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, James C. Kottman, her parents C.K. Pals and Katie Barkema Pals; siblings Tena Hillmann, Raymond Pals, Ruth Syverson, Stanley Pals, Russell Pals, and Margaret Hake; sister-in-law Evelyn Kruse, Cora Kottman, and brother-in-law Wilbert Kruse.