GRAHAM, Ella 1902-1972

GRAHAM, DIEKEN, GROOTE

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 7/13/2014 at 20:40:32

Funeral Thursday For Ella Graham

Funeral services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Colfax Center Presbyterian Church for Mrs. Ella Graham, 70, who died suddenly Monday noon at her home in Grundy Center.

Burial will be in the church cemetery. Rev. Jerry Van Curler is to officiate.

Mrs. Graham, the former Ella Dieken, was born March 10, 1902, in Lincoln township, the daughter of Jurgen H. and Minnie Groote Dieken.

She attended grade school in Lincoln township, and later attended the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.

Mrs. Graham went to China as a missionary in 1928. Two years later she was united in marriage to John Graham in Yunnanfu, Yunnan Province, China.

In 1936 the couple returned to the United States for a year's furlough, and then returned again to China in 1937. In August, 1946, they came to Iowa for another furlough.

Mr. Graham passed away Aug. 13, 1947, in Grundy Center.

Following her husband's death, Mrs. Graham continued her missionary work in Thialand. She later returned to the United States and made her home in Wheaton, Ill., where she was affiliated with Wheaton College and the Home for Missionary Children until 1965.

She moved to Grundy Center in June of this year, and made her home at 310 H Avenue.

Mrs. Graham is survived by two children, John F. Graham, RFD 2, Arnold, Mo., and Mrs. Roger (Enid) Fischer, Salem, Oregon.

Also three brothers, LaVern Dieken, Holland; Rev. Glenn Dieken, Traer; and Irvin Dieken, rural Holland; one sister, Mrs. James (Anna) Griffiths, East Chicago, Ind.; and nine grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband and two brothers.

Engelkes-Abels Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Because of Mrs. Graham's devout interest in missions, the family desires that friends present memorial gifts to missions of their choice in place of sending flowers at the time of her funeral service.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 12 October 1972, pg 2