Ruth Willey Luithly 1922-1980

LUITHLY, WILLEY, LINN, MOKLESTAD, NELSON

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 12/22/2011 at 23:36:43

Ruth Luithly
Estherville – Mrs. Ruth Luithly, 58, Spirit Lake, died Tuesday [November 11, 1980] afternoon at Holy Family Hospital.

Memorial services for Mrs. Luithly will be 2 p.m. Saturday at the United Methodist Church, Estherville.

Fuhrman Funeral Home, Estherville, is in charge of arrangements, but there will be no visitation because Mrs. Luithly donated her body to the University of Iowa Medical School for research.

The daughter of Charles and Neva Linn Willey, she was born in Sibley in 1922 and moved to Estherville with her family in 1933.

She graduated from Estherville High School, Estherville Junior College and St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., and taught music and English in Jackson, and Pendleton, Ore. She was married to William Hoyt Luithly, managing editor of the Estherville Daily News, on Sept. 11, 1949, at Estherville. Her husband died in 1964.

She taught in the Estherville Junior High from 1966 to 1970 before going to Indiana, where she earned her Masters Degree at Ball State University and taught high school in Warsaw. She returned to Estherville in 1977, teaching in the Middle School.

She was a member of the United Methodist Church, PEO Sisterhood, American Association of University Women and National Council of Teachers of English.

Mrs. Luithly is survived by two sons, William Luithly, Minneapolis, Minn., and Paul Luithly, Warsaw, Ind.; two daughters, Ann Luithly, Helena, Mont., and Jane Luithly, a senior at the University of Iowa, Iowa City; and two sisters, Mrs. Loren Moklestad, Estherville, and Mrs. Raymond Nelson, Grandada Hills, Calif.

She was preceded in death by her husband, one daughter and her parents. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, November 12, 1980)