OKONES, Nettie 1907-1986

OKONES, RIEKENA, ROSS

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 4/25/2014 at 19:42:44

Family Mourns The Passing Of Nettie Okones

Funeral services for Mrs. Nettie Okones were held Friday, July 25 at 1:30 p.m. at the Second Christian Reformed Church. Pastor Orwin Duistermars officiated the services.

Miss Monica Doyen was organist and accompanied the soloist, Kent Berghuis, who sang two selections. Flower attendants were Mrs. Gideon Wolbrink and Mrs. Arnold Arends. Ushers were Harm C. Meyer and Herman Groote.

Casket bearers were Rick Nederhoff, Mark Nederhoff, Kent Nederhoff, Dick Okones, Scott Diekman, Robert Diekman and Jason Diekman, grandsons of the deceased. The interment service was held at the Shiloh Cemetery in Wellsburg.

Doyen Funeral Home was in charge of the arrangements.

Mrs. Okones passed away around 2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, July 22, at the Maple Manor Nursing Home in Aplington due to heart failure. She had been taken to the nursing home on the 15th of July for extended care. She reached the age of 78 years, 7 months and 25 days.

She was born Nettie Helen Riekena on November 27, 1907, in Monroe, SD, the daughter of Ben and Reka (Ross) Riekena. The family moved to Nihill, MT, in 1909 where she attended elementary school and then graduated from the Harlowton, MT high school with the Class of 1925.

She attended the School of Nursing at Billings, MT from January 1927 until July 1928, later transferring to the Deaconess Hospital in Marshalltown for one year. After leaving the nursing profession she accepted a position with Farmers and Merchants Savings Bank in Wellsburg.

On August 20, 1930, she was married to Henry Okones at Missoula, MT. Following their marriage they lived in Wellsburg. Later they moved to a farm southeast of Wellsburg and then in 1955 moved back to Wellsburg where she accepted the position of secretary to the Superintendent of Schools. She retired in 1971.

Nettie was a long-time member of the Second Christian Reformed Church of Wellsburg, having joined by transfer of membership from the Wellsburg Reformed Church on May 23, 1939. She was a member of the Willing Workers Society and also taught Sunday School for many years.

Survivors include two daughters: Rhea, and her husband, Willis Nederhoff of Wellsburg; Janice and her husband, Wayne Diekman of Aplington; 11 grandchildren; 7 great-grandchildren; one sister, Mrs. Bernice Davis of Butte, MT and many other relatives and friends.

Preceding her in death were her husband, Henry, who passed away on October 8, 1978; her son, Stanley, who passed away on February 25, 1980; one grandson; one granddaughter; four brothers and five sisters.

--Wellsburg Herald (Grundy Center, Iowa), 31 July 1986, pg 1