WILCOX, Alta Eileen

WILCOX, BIRCH, ABRAHAMSON, OLSON, BRADY, CONLEY, PUHRMANN, LAURSEN, GLUCK, JOHNSON, WOOD, CURRY, MCKENNAN, HAZEN

Posted By: Lynette Edsall (email)
Date: 9/13/2006 at 14:07:15

Alta Eileen Wilcox

CLEGHORN, Iowa -- Alta Eileen Wilcox, 90, of Cleghorn passed away Thursday, Oct. 27, 2005, at Cherokee Regional Medical Center in Cherokee, Iowa, following a brief illness.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Monday at Cleghorn Presbyterian Church, with the Rev. Patricia Cox officiating. Burial will be in Oak Hill Cemetery, Cherokee. Visitation will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 6:30 to 8 p.m., at Boothby Funeral Home in Cherokee.

Alta Eileen Birch was born March 31, 1915, in Amherst Township, south of Marcus, to William and Olive (Pooley) Birch. When she was 2 years old, her parents moved to their farm south of Cleghorn. Alta attended the Cleghorn school, graduating in 1932 in the first class that graduated after attending 12 years in the new school. She was in the first grade when the new schoolhouse in Cleghorn opened.

On Aug. 28, 1932, she was married to James S. Wilcox and they farmed southeast of Cleghorn. To this union three children were born, James Dean, Janice Eileen and Judith Ann. Jim and Alta celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on Aug. 28, 1997. The couple lived in Cleghorn since 1961 at 101 S. Hamilton, Alta having been a resident of the Cleghorn area her entire life.

She was a member of Cleghorn Presbyterian Church for 80 years, having joined the church in 1925 and her future husband joined the church in the same class. She was also a member of Martha Society, Esther Circle, Friendship Guild, Dorcas Society and held several offices in them. Alta enjoyed knitting and crocheting afghans, sweaters, doilies, pot holders, crosses and on plastic hangers and she always enjoyed giving them away. She enjoyed planting flowers and she loved to see them grow. She enjoyed her family and friends.

She is survived by two daughters, Janice and her husband, Richard Abrahamson of Primghar, Iowa, and Judith Olson of Spencer, Iowa; eight grandchildren, Tammy Brady, Kyra Conley, Arlyn Wilcox, Richard Abrahamson, Jerald Abrahamson, Lu Ann Puhrmann, James Olson and Lisa Laursen; 12 great-grandchildren, Morgan, Sydney and Merrill Brady, Logan Conley, Melissa and Jessica Abrahamson, Jared, Elyse and Jocelyn Abrahamson, Kayla and Kyle Puhrmann and Freddie Gluck; a brother, Stanley Birch and his wife, Margaret of Cleghorn; three sisters, Berniece Johnson of Scottsdale, Ariz., Vera Wood and her husband, Gerald of Storm Lake, Iowa, and Audrey Curry of Chico, Calif.; a sister-in-law, Barbara Birch of Phoenix, Ariz.; and other relatives and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband on Jan. 2, 1998; a son, James Dean Wilcox on Feb. 24, 1996; two sisters, Pearl McKennan and Lois Hazen; and a brother, Milo Birch.