Joselyn Olive Reece DeWitt Kemp Herke 1909-1983

HERKE, KEMP, DEWITT, REECE, HOBSON, RABB, HORMANN, JESSUP

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 1/31/2014 at 23:24:32

Joselyn Herke
Estherville – Mrs. Herman (Joselyn Olive) Herke, 74, Estherville, died Saturday [September 3, 1983] at Holy Family Hospital, Estherville. Funeral services were Tuesday morning at the United Methodist Church, Graettinger, with the Rev. Donald Strauch and the Rev. John Bowe, of the First Presbyterian Church in Estherville in Estherville, officiating. Burial was in the Estherville Cemetery. Henry and Olson Funeral Home, Estherville, was in charge of arrangements.

She was born July 18, 1909, at New Providence, Iowa, the daughter of Eugene Reece and Lucinda (Hobson) Reece. She was educated in Gifford. She moved to Union with her parents as a young girl. She nurses and did housework before her marriage to Harold DeWitt in 1927. Mr. DeWitt later died and she married F.E. Kemp in 1947 and they lived in Iowa Falls before moving to Estherville in 1949. After Mr. Kemp’s death, she married Herman Herke in 1976. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church in Estherville, Brotherhood of Railroad Conductors Auxiliary and also the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen’s Auxiliary, the American Legion Auxiliary and the Rebekahs.

She is survived by her husband, Herman, Estherville; one son, Eugene DeWitt, Rapid City, S.D.; two daughters, Mrs. Richard (Sarah) Rabb, Arlington, Texas, and Mrs. Darlene Hormann, Silverton, Ore.; 10 grandchildren, one great grandchild; one sister, Mrs. Wilbur Jessup, Union.

She was preceded in death by one daughter, two brothers and two sisters. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, September 6, 1983)

Note: her gravestone reads “Joselyn Kemp”